Anika signs US licensing deal with DePuy Mitek for Monovisc
This article was originally published in Scrip
Anika Therapeutics has signed an exclusive, multi-year US licensing and supply agreement with the orthopedic sports medicine company, DePuy Mitek, for its Monovisc product, a purified, high-molecular weight form of hyaluronic acid for treating pain in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.
In the deal, Anika will receive an initial payment of $2.5 million, and also be entitled to receive additional payment from DePuy, following the mutual decision to launch the product, related to future regulatory, clinical and sales milestones. The licence agreement has an initial term of 15 years, unless earlier terminated as per certain early termination rights of each company.
Monovisc is currently pending approval by the US FDA. Last year, Genzyme sued Anika in a US federal court, claiming that Monovisc would infringe US patents it holds covering viscoelastic gels (scripintelligence.com, 13 July 2010). In a regulatory filing on the DePuy agreement, Anika said that, "The licence agreement contains certain terms and provisions regarding the company’s ongoing litigation with Genzyme as well as customary terms and conditions, including, but not limited to, provisions related to confidentiality, record storage and intellectual property."
Monovisc has been marketed outside the US since 2008 in Canada and various European and Middle Eastern countries.
DePuy had previously licensed Anika's initial viscosupplementation product, Orthovisc, an injectable hyaluronic acid for knee osteoarthritis.