(By Balaseshan) Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s (NYSE:TEVA) subsidiary has received the commercialization rights of Sitavig (Acyclovir Lauriad) drug in Israel from France-based biopharmaceutical company BioAlliance Pharma SA.
Sitavig drug has been developed by BioAlliance Pharma for the treatment of recurrent orofacial herpes (cold sores or fever blisters) in immunocompetent patients.
BioAlliance Pharma has signed first exclusive license agreement for its Sitavig (Acyclovir Lauriad) with Abic Marketing Ltd. for commercialization rights in Israel. Financial terms of this license agreement are not disclosed.
This agreement includes upfront and milestone payments as well as royalties on sales in Israel, to be paid to BioAlliance Pharma by Teva.
BioAlliance Chief Executive Judith Greciet said Teva as the leading player on Israeli market is a key partner for BioAlliance and for the commercialization of Sitavig, and the company looks forward to build a constructive and close partnership.
Sitavig is based on the innovative mucoadhesive buccal technology Lauriad, delivering very high concentrations of acyclovir at the site of herpes infection. The phase 3 trial has shown a strong efficacy and safety profile, basis for the registration submission.
The efficacy of Sitavig has been validated with a pivotal phase 3 clinical trial conducted in 775 patients that showed a significant reduction in the occurrence of vesicular lesions, in the time to healing of vesicular lesions, in the herpes episode duration and in the severity of symptoms.
Moreover, a 9-month follow-up showed that Sitavig had an effect on the long term, delaying the time to occurrence of the following herpes episode.
Herpes labialis or orolabial herpes is an infection of the lip by herpes simplex virus (HSV-1). An outbreak typically causes small blisters or infection on or around the mouth commonly known as cold sores or fever blisters.
TEVA is trading down 0.36% at $38.67 on Wednesday. The stock has been trading between $35 and $49.84 for the past 52 weeks.