Acura Pharma And Pfizer End Aversion Technology License

(RTTNews) - Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ACUR) announced the termination of Pfizer Inc's (PFE) license to Acura's Aversion Technology and the return to Acura of the FDA approved Oxecta (oxycodone HCl) product. The license termination is effective April 9, 2014.

As per the termination agreement, Acura will make a one-time payment of $2.0 million to Pfizer.

The Aversion Technology utilizes a proprietary mixture of inactive ingredients to discourage tampering of a product for abusive purposes.

"We are pleased that we have been able to reach agreement on acceptable terms for the license termination. we are currently evaluating our strategic options for the returned product and our other AVERSION Technology products in development, which may include a re-launch under a new brand name in partnership with another pharmaceutical company," said Bob Jones, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acura Pharmaceuticals.

Acura Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development and commercialization of product candidates intended to address medication abuse and misuse, utilizing its proprietary Aversion and Impede Technologies. Aversion contains polymers that cause the drug to gel when dissolved; it also contains compounds that irritate the nasal passages. Impede is designed to disrupt the processing of pseudoephedrine from tablets into methamphetamine.

In June 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Oxecta (oxycodone HC1 tablets) which incorporates the Aversion technology. The company has a development pipeline of additional Aversion technology products containing other opioids.