Santhera and Ipsen Renegotiate Fipamezole Licensing Agreement

Santhera Pharmaceuticals and Ipsen have announced that they have renegotiated their fipamezole licensing agreement.

Santhera regains the worldwide rights to the development and commercialization of fipamezole, its first-in-class selective adrenergic alpha-2 receptor antagonist for the management of levodopa-induced Dyskinesia in Parkinson's Disease.

Under the renegotiated terms, Ipsen returns its rights for territories outside of North America and Japan in exchange for milestone payments and royalties based on future partnering and commercial success of fipamezole.

Ipsen retains a call option for worldwide license to the program under certain conditions.

Thomas Meier, Chief Executive Officer of Santhera, commented: "Under the agreement reached with Ipsen, Santhera has regained global marketing rights for fipamezole, which we can further develop in line with the Company's strategy. In the short term, the focus of our investments remains on our lead product Catena® and its multiple product opportunities in neuromuscular and mitochondrial orphan indications. However, fipamezole continues to be a valuable asset in Santhera's late-stage clinical pipeline."

Pierre Boulud, Ipsen's Executive Vice-President, Corporate Strategy stated: "We are pleased that Santhera regains the worldwide rights to an agent like fipamezole. This new agreement will help to leverage the drug's value on a global basis while allowing Ipsen to focus on its rich late stage development pipeline. With its important commercial overlap with movement disorders, Parkinson Disease remains an important area of commercial focus for Ipsen. Santhera's commitment to this first-in-class drug has the potential to benefit levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's Disease patients in crucial need of better therapies."