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Elite Pharmaceuticals Forms Joint Venture With Elan
NORTHVALE, N.J., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Amex: ELI - news; OTC Bulletin Board: ELIPZ - news) announced today that it has signed an agreement to form a joint venture with Elan Corporation (NYSE: ELN - news) to develop several pharmaceutical products in areas of strategic interest to Elan. Under the terms of the agreement, the joint venture formed by the companies will license exclusively from the respective companies certain oral drug delivery technologies for development of these products. Elan will also make a $5 million equity investment in Elite.
“We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to enter a joint venture arrangement with Elan, whose EPT division is the world's leading drug delivery company. The joint venture, when consummated, will enable us to develop several products utilizing resources of each company,” said Dr. Atul Mehta, President and CEO of Elite.
Max Gershenoff of Elan stated, “We are pleased to have formed a joint venture with Elite, which will enable the accelerated development of products which are of strategic interest to Elan.” Both Elan and Elite will continue their own development of products outside the joint venture and both will continue to collaborate with other companies.
Recently, Elite had signed a memorandum of understanding with Inabata to form a joint venture in Japan to license and market Elite products in Japan. Elite will retain control of this joint venture company, when formed, and contribute products and technology whereas Inabata will provide funding and marketing support.
Elite specializes in the development of delayed release, sustained release, release and other controlled release formulations, including taste masking. Elite has been issued several patents including pulse release methylphenidate drugs (U.S. Patent 5,837,284). The latter has been assigned to Celgene who recently licensed it to Novartis. |
