The tie up aims at developing up to four acetaminophen/opioid analgesic combination products utilising Depomed’s Acuform gastric retentive drug delivery technology.
As per the licensing pact between Depomed and a Covidien company, Mallinckrodt, So far Covidien has paid a one-time upfront payment of $4m and $1.5m in development milestone payments.
Additionally, Depomed could receive up to $62.5m in additional development milestone payments over the next several years.
Moreover, Depomed is also entitled to get a royalty from Covidien on sales of products developed under the license agreement. Covidien is responsible for all development other than certain initial formulation work.
Depomed president and CEO Carl Pelzel said that they are pleased that the first product candidate has already advanced into clinical development. This first product candidate could be launched into the market as soon as 2013.
“Since we retained co-promotion rights of the product to the OB/GYN field, the launch would fit nicely with our expected approval of our menopausal hot flash product Serada in late 2012,” Pelzel said.