BioDelivery Sciences International (NSDQ:BDSI) said today that it inked an exclusive distribution deal with Purdue Pharma‘s Canada branch for the licensing, distribution, marketing and sale of Belbuca in Canada.
The company’s Belbuca buccal film was designed to deliver buprenorphine for patients with chronic pain. It was cleared by Health Canada in June for patients with pain severe enough to necessitate daily, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative management options are inadequate.
According to the deal, Purdue could pay up to $4.5 million CAD ($3.5 million USD) to BioDelivery Sciences for the licensing and distribution rights, as well as royalties on net sales.
“We look forward to our partnership with Purdue Pharma (Canada) and expanding the reach of Belbuca to patients in Canada who are suffering from chronic pain,” BioDelivery Sciences president & CEO Mark Sirgo said in prepared remarks. “We are particularly enthusiastic to be partnering with a company like Purdue given their long history and commitment to pain management as well as their expertise and strong presence in the Canadian pain market. The licensing of Belbuca in Canada is a very important step for BioDelivery Sciences in broadening access to Belbuca beyond the U.S., and we look forward to the introduction of the product.”
“Belbuca provides physicians another safe and effective treatment option, when used as indicated, for Canadian patients, deemed appropriate for treatment, who suffer from long-term, chronic pain,” Purdue president & CEO Craig Landau added. “We believe the potential benefits of this buprenorphine-containing product are significant, and are enthusiastic at the opportunity to bring this therapeutic option to Canada. This agreement and the subsequent launch of Belbuca underscores our commitment to pain patients and more broadly, to the field of pain management.”
For years, BioDelivery Sciences has developed mucoadhesive buccal films loaded with painkillers for pain management and addiction therapy. Now it is developing a buprenorphine depot injection that would maintain a particular drug concentration to treat opioid dependence or chronic pain for 30 days.
Sirgo told Drug Delivery Business News that the company hopes to bring the single-injection technology into its 1st-in-man study in the 3rd quarter of 2017.
