InterMune Announces Lilly Exercises Option to Buy Down Oritavancin Royalty Payments
Monday September 30, 7:18 pm ET
BRISBANE, Calif., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN - News) announced today that Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY - News) has elected to execute its option to buy down the royalty rate related to oritavancin per the original licensing agreement signed by the two companies last year. As a result, InterMune will pay Lilly $15 million in exchange for a reduction in royalty payments due Lilly on future worldwide sales of oritavancin. This payment will be recorded by InterMune in the third quarter of 2002, and translates into a loss of $0.48 per share. No other financial terms were disclosed.
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"We are pleased with the progress we are making with oritavancin, and we therefore expect to file an NDA by the end of 2003," said Scott Harkonen, President and CEO of InterMune. "We look forward to completing and reporting results of our second Phase III study in skin and soft tissue infections and a Phase II trial in bacteremia in the first half of 2003."
Last year, the company reported positive results from the first Phase III trial of oritavancin for the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections. Oritavancin was shown to be safe, well tolerated and as effective as the standard-of-care agents vancomycin/cephalexin (i.e., effectiveness was defined by either a cure or improvement in a condition). Oritavancin reduced treatment times by approximately one half the current standard of care and eliminated the need for follow-up therapy with oral antibiotics. The oritavancin patients averaged 5.5 days of intravenous treatment, as compared to an average of 11.9 days of therapy for patients who received intravenous vancomycin followed by oral cephalexin.
About Oritavancin
Oritavancin, a second-generation glycopeptide antibiotic, is being developed by InterMune as a new treatment for Gram-positive infections. Oritavancin has the ability to kill harmful and resistant strains of Gram-positive bacteria, unlike many other agents that merely suppress them. Based on compelling clinical and preclinical data that suggest oritavancin could be effective in treating Gram-positive infections, InterMune is conducting numerous Phase II and Phase III studies to prove efficacy and safety in these indications.
About InterMune
InterMune is a commercially driven biopharmaceutical company focused on the marketing, development and applied research of life-saving therapies for pulmonary disease, infectious disease and cancer. For additional information about InterMune, please visit www.intermune.com. |
