CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DURECT
Corporation (Nasdaq: DRRX) today announced that it has signed
an agreement to sell its LACTEL Absorbable Polymer (LACTEL) product
line to Evonik, a global leader in specialty chemicals.
Under the terms of the agreement, Evonik will pay DURECT
$15 million in exchange for certain assets and liabilities
associated with LACTEL product line based in Birmingham, Alabama, plus an additional
potential payment based on full year EBITDAS results. The
transaction is expected to close by Q1 2021 pending the
satisfaction of certain customary closing conditions. An offer will
be extended to each of the 15 employees of DURECT located in
Birmingham, Alabama, which are
associated with the LACTEL® business to transition to Evonik.
"It has been a pleasure working with the highly motivated and
talented LACTEL team. We have confidence that Evonik will
apply its resources and commitment to excellence to enable the
LACTEL product line and supporting team members to
thrive," said James E. Brown,
President and CEO of DURECT. "This deal makes strategic sense for
DURECT as we continue to focus on epigenetic regulation and the
development of DUR-928 for alcohol-associated hepatitis and other
acute organ injury and chronic liver diseases. We wish all of
our LACTEL colleagues the very best going forward."
"The acquisition of the LACTEL® business will strengthen both
our innovation growth field Healthcare Solutions and Evonik's
position as a globally leading CDMO for drug delivery solutions,"
says Johann-Caspar Gammelin, Head of
the Nutrition & Care Division of Evonik. "The acquisition of
the LACTEL® business marks a consequential step in the growth
agenda of the life-science division Nutrition & Care. The
LACTEL® business will benefit from fast-growing markets such as
advanced drug delivery, biomaterials for tissue engineering, and
the 3D printing of implantable medical devices."
Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The
company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and
generated sales of €13.1 billion and an operating profit (adjusted
EBITDA) of €2.15 billion in 2019. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry
to create innovative, profitable and sustainable solutions for
customers. The focus of Evonik's Nutrition & Care division is
on health and quality of life. It develops differentiated solutions
for active pharmaceutical ingredients, medical devices, nutrition
for humans and animals, personal care, cosmetics, and household
cleaning. In these resilient end markets, the division generated
sales of around €2.9 billion in 2019 with about 5,300
employees.
About DURECT Corporation
DURECT is a biopharmaceutical
company committed to transforming the treatment of acute organ
injury and chronic liver diseases by advancing novel and
potentially lifesaving therapies based on its endogenous epigenetic
regulator program. DUR-928, the company's lead drug candidate is in
clinical development for the potential treatment of
alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), COVID-19 patients with acute
liver or kidney injury, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
DURECT's proprietary drug delivery technologies are designed to
enable new indications and enhanced attributes for small-molecule
and biologic drugs. One late-stage product candidate in this
category is POSIMIR® (bupivacaine sustained-release solution), an
investigational locally-acting, non-opioid analgesic intended to
provide up to three days of continuous pain relief after surgery.
For more information about DURECT, please visit www.durect.com and
follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/DURECTCorp.
DURECT Forward-Looking Statement
The statements in this press release regarding the agreement to
sell the LACTEL product line to Evonik and potential additional
payments, clinical development plans for DUR-928, including the
potential use of DUR-928 to treat COVID-19 patients with liver or
kidney injury, the potential use of DUR-928 to treat acute organ
injuries, such as AH, and chronic liver diseases, such as
NASH, and the potential use of POSIMIR to provide pain relief
after surgery are forward-looking statements involving risks and
uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially
from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks that the
closing of the sale of the LACTEL product line fails to close as
anticipated or that additional payments are not earned, that the
clinical trial of DUR-928 in COVID-19 patients is delayed or
stopped because of changes to the standard of care, the
availability of alternative therapies, protocol changes or lack of
available patients, the risk that future clinical trials of DUR-928
are not started when anticipated, take longer to conduct than
anticipated, do not confirm the results from earlier clinical or
pre-clinical trials, or do not demonstrate the safety or efficacy
of DUR-928 in a statistically significant manner, the risk that the
FDA will not approve POSIMIR or approve POSIMIR with a limited
label, the risk that additional time and resources may be required
for development, testing and regulatory approval of DUR-928 or the
Company's other product candidates, potential adverse effects
arising from the testing or use of our drug candidates, our
potential failure to maintain our collaborative agreements with
third parties and risks related to our ability to obtain capital to
fund operations and expenses. Further information regarding these
and other risks is included in DURECT's Form 10-Q filed on
November 3, 2020 under the heading
"Risk Factors."
NOTE: POSIMIR® and SABER® are trademarks
of DURECT Corporation. Other referenced trademarks belong to
their respective owners. DUR-928 and POSIMIR are
investigational drug candidates under development and have not been
approved for commercialization by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration or other health authorities for any indication.
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SOURCE DURECT Corporation