Impax and DURECT in $63 million deal for Eladur pain patch

US specialty drugmaker Impax Laboratories (Nasdaq: IPXL) has entered into an agreement with fellow USA-based DURECT (Nasdaq: DRRX) granting Impax the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Eladur, DURECT’s investigational transdermal bupivacaine patch for the treatment of pain associated with post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN).

Under the terms of the deal, Impax will pay DURECT an upfront fee of $2 million, with possible additional payments of up to $61 million on the achievement of predefined development and commercialization milestones. If Eladur is commercialized, DURECT would also receive a tiered royalty on product sales. Impax will control and fund the development program.