Norgine Pharmaceuticals enters into agreement with Santarus

Norgine has announced that it has joined forces with the specialty biopharmaceutical company Santarus for a licensing agreement granting exclusive rights to Norgine to develop, manufacture and commercialise prescription immediate-release Zegerid products.

The items will incorporate the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole in combination with one or more buffering agents in specified markets in western, central and eastern Europe.

As part of the agreement, Norgine will pay Santarus a fee of $2.5 million (1.57 million pounds) and will also issue a further $10 million in milestone payments.

Peter Stein, chief executive officer of Norgine, stated: “This license agreement with Santarus supports our objective to use our European infrastructure to bring innovative products to our markets.”

In other Norgine news, the company revealed last month that it had acquired a licence to a patent portfolio from the L’Institut National Recherche Agronomique for the exclusive access of its products.