The objectives of the studies were to determine the safety and tolerability of DUR-843 in healthy human volunteers as well as evaluate the pharmacokinetics of the active pharmaceutical agent following administration of the product candidate. In these trials, DUR-843 appeared safe and well-tolerated.
Durect, which has a number of late-stage pharmaceutical products in development focused on significant unmet medical needs in pain management, said that the persistent pain market is currently underserved and the compound has the potential to provide several advantages over existing pain medications.
President and CEO of Durect, James Brown, said: “As a result of our recent collaboration with Nycomed covering Posidur, we are in a stronger financial position and therefore have decided to further develop this product on our own as part of our strategy to become a specialty pharmaceutical company. To that objective, for competitive reasons, Durect is not disclosing at this time the specific drug delivery technology which underlies DUR-843 as well as the active pharmaceutical agent.”