Neurobiological Technologies Announces Amendment of License and Cooperation Agreement with Merz Pharmaceuticals and Childrens' Hospital
Tuesday February 26, 7:00 am ET
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Neurobiological Technologies, Inc. (NTI®) (Nasdaq: NTII - News), today announced the amendment of its license and cooperation agreement with Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH (Merz) and Childrens' Medical Center Corporation ("CMCC") relating to memantine, which is currently marketed in the United States as Namenda(TM) and in Europe as Ebixa(TM).
The amendment modifies the terms of the royalties to be paid to the company on sales of memantine, including discontinuing the payment of royalties on sales of memantine for Alzheimer's disease outside of the United States beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007 (for which the company is due to receive a royalty payment in April 2008) and providing for a staged reduction in the royalty rates to be paid to the company and CMCC on sales of memantine in the United States beginning in the third quarter of 2008. In addition, the amendment provides that neither CMCC nor Merz will give notice of termination of the agreement under the section relating to the development of memantine for the CMCC indications before July 1, 2009 or to be effective before January 1, 2010.
"We felt it was important to agree to this amendment to reduce the uncertainty relating to ability of Merz and CMCC to terminate the agreement on six months' notice and to give us greater assurance that we will continue to receive royalty payments on US sales of memantine for at least the next two years, which will be a critical period for our company as we complete our pivotal phase 3 clinical trials of Viprinex(TM) for ischemic stroke," said Paul E. Freiman, President and CEO of Neurobiological Technologies. "As we effectively receive our payments two quarters after the memantine sales are made, this means that we should receive royalty payments from Merz, albeit at reduced rates, until the second quarter of 2010."
The company also announced that, in connection with entering into the amendment, it had received the payment from Merz due on January 30, 2008 of the royalties on sales of memantine in the third quarter of 2007 in the amount of $2,161,228.<snip> |
