Pozen, Sanofi End Licensing Pact for Gastric Ulcer Therapy

   By Tess Stynes 
 

Pozen Inc. (POZN) and the U.S. unit of Sanofi (SNY) mutually agreed to end a licensing agreement reached in September 2013, under which France-based Sanofi had exclusive rights to commercialize Pozen's aspirin therapies to treat gastric ulcers in cardiovascular patients.

Shares of Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Pozen were at $7.35 in recent early trading, down 17%. Sanofi's American depositary shares were at $48.75, up nearly 1%.

As of Saturday, all licenses granted to Sanofi have been terminated and all rights revert to Pozen. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide whether to approve the treatments--which recently received conditional approval for the brand name Yosprala-- on Dec. 30.

Pozen Chief Executive John Plachetka said that as the company works with the FDA ahead of the expected decision that "the clinical profile of the drug, as described in the current FDA-proposed package insert, will meet or exceed the assumptions we made when we started our development and evaluated the commercial potential for this product."

Under the 2013 agreement, Sanofi had received exclusive rights to commercialize Pozen's PA8140 and PA32540 tablets, which combine immediate-release omeprazole, a proton pump inhibitor, and enteric-coated aspirin into one pill.

"Given that the target population for Yosprala could exceed 20 million patients in the U.S., we will be fully engaged in the near term evaluating strategic options available to the company," Mr. Plachetka said.

 
 -- Nathalie Tadena contributed to this article. 
 

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

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