Chapel Hill Drug Manufacturer Ends Agreement with Johnson & Johnson

Chapel Hill-based drug developer Pozen has been in the spotlight a lot as of late. In mid-December the FDA did not approve the company’s latest drug application. And, on Monday, Pozen broke off a licensing relationship with Johnson & Johnson.

Pozen and the industry giant mutually agreed to end their licensing agreement over a drug produced by Pozen, according to the Triangle Business Journal.

TBJ’s Jason deBruyn says that he believes Pozen thinks they can get a better offer than what Johnson & Johnson was providing for Pozen selling their migraine treatment in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

“This is a little bit of speculation on my part,” he says, “but from Pozen’s perspective, by terminating the deal with this one company, they will potentially sign a deal with a different company.”

He adds the new deal may provide Pozen with a more formidable agreement.

deBruyn says that it is commonplace for a company the size of Pozen to team up with a larger business to utilize their resources.

“Instead of Pozen going in and directly selling it,” he says, “they’ll license the product to another company – that already has all the regulatory hoops they’ve jumped through.”

There’s no word yet on who Pozen may choose to enter into an agreement with regarding the marketing and sell of their migraine drug at this point.

This is not the first time Pozen has ended a licensing agreement with a large company. deBruyn says that, after years of public quarreling, Pozen ended an agreement with drug giant Astra Zaneca in recent years.

He adds that Pozen also recently had a deal terminated with Sanofi, but adds the details surrounding that split are much different.

Pozen has been in the late stages of development of an aspirin-containing drug that is said to reduce chances of developing ulcers while taking the medication. The FDA, however, has not approved the drug for sale in the US either time through inspections, according to deBruyn.

“Pozen has a contract with a third company that manufactures the drug,” he says. “The FDA didn’t find any problems with the science of the drug, itself. But found some deficiencies at the manufacturing site.”

deBruyn says these issues were enough for Sanofi to back away from their agreement.

He adds that Pozen has a different business model than the majority of companies their size in the Triangle. Rather than putting revenue brought in from royalties back into the business, deBruyn says Pozen appears content to collect royalties and pay dividends to investors.

He adds that, in his estimation, this appears to show that Pozen may be contemplating winding down production from the Chapel Hill-based drug manufacturer and solely bringing in revenue from royalties through the agreements they have in place.

Chapel Hill Drug Manufacturer Ends Agreement with Johnson & Johnson

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