King completes acquisition of pain drug

Avinza is indicated as a once-daily morphine treatment for chronic moderate-to-severe pain in patients who require continuous opioid therapy for an extended period of time.

“The addition of Avinza to our portfolio is highly complementary and will provide our sales team with the opportunity to develop deeper relationships with physicians who prescribe opioid products,” said Steve Andrzejewski, chief commercial officer of King Pharmaceuticals.

With a growing pain management franchise, King's portfolio of marketed and developmental pain management products now includes Avinza, Skelaxin, Remoxy and T-62.

Under the terms of the agreement, King has made a $246 million payment to Ligand to acquire all the rights to Avinza in the US, its territories and Canada. In addition, King has reimbursed Ligand for certain product-related liabilities and other expenses totaling $49 million and has assumed all existing product royalty obligations.

To better leverage this opportunity, King is increasing its current pain specialty sales team to over 150 professionals through the integration of Ligand's existing Avinza sales force.