pSivida Corp. (NSDQ:PSDV) reeled a $15.3 million payment from Alimera Sciences Inc. (NSDQ:ALIM) triggered by Alimera’s April 21 initial public offering.
The two companies are collaborating on a drug-device combination called Iluvien, designed to treat diabetic macular edema. Last week Alimera raised $72 million in its IPO, selling 6.6 million shares at $11 each.
The IPO triggered the payment of a $15 million note and $225,000 in interest to pSivida, according to pSivida spokeswoman Beverly Jedynak. pSivida CEO Dr. Paul Ashton told MassDevice that the company plans to use the money to further develop its product pipeline.
"We have a lot of things going on," Ashton told us. "We have a lot of opportunities with our technologies, looking at a lot of other conditions. Our big focus is developing treatments for unmet medical needs, ideally conditions that affect large numbers of people. Our main focus is in ophthalmology and, unfortunately, there are many many conditions that affect people that are potentially blinding conditions."
Iluvien, designed to deliver a sustained dose of a steroid called fluocinolone acetonide to the back of the eye over three years, is in a Phase II clinical trial. Data from that study will supplement a new drug application to the Food & Drug Administration, which Alimera expects to file some time this quarter, according to pSivida’s website.
If that happens and the FDA grants approval, expected during the fourth quarter, it would trigger a milestone payment from Alimera to pSivida of $25 million. pSivida would also receive royalties of 20 percent of the net profits from the sale of Iluvien.
The FDA has already cleared a pair of pSivida products: Retisert, for the treatment of posterior uveitis, and Vitrasert for the treatment of AIDS-related cytomegalovirus retinitis. Both are licensed to Bausch & Lomb Inc. The company is also developing other ophthalmic products with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), its largest shareholder, and has products of its own in the pipeline outside of ophthalmology, according to a press release.
Last week the company touted results from a study of its Durasert drug-device combination that it said helps slow the advance of a degenerative eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa.
