Avanir & Concert Announce Exclusive License Agreement

Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced they have entered into an exclusive license agreement that provides Avanir worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Concert’s deuterium-modified dextromethorphan (d-DM) for the potential treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. The agreement includes the rights to multiple deuterium-modified dextromethorphan compounds.

Under the terms of the agreement, Concert will receive an up-front payment and is eligible to receive additional milestone payments upon achievement of certain predefined clinical, regulatory, and commercial targets as well as tiered royalties on worldwide sales of products containing d-DM. Avanir will have overall responsibility for research, development, and commercialization of d-DM. Concert will provide manufacturing support for investigational new drugenabling studies.

“Concert’s DCE Platform (Deuterated Chemical Entity Platform) has produced several deuterium-modified dextromethorphan compounds that we believe may provide therapeutically effective levels of dextromethorphan, potentially without the need for an enzyme inhibitor such as quinidine,” said Greg Flesher, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Business Officer of Avanir Pharmaceuticals. “As part of our portfolio strategy, we intend to explore the utility of d-DM in neurological and psychiatric disorders where dual NMDA antagonists and sigma-1 agonists may be beneficial.”

“We are very pleased to enter into this collaboration with Avanir, who we believe has the unique expertise to best maximize the broad clinical potential of d-DM. Avanir’s knowledge of dextromethorphan-based therapeutics and their proven track record to bring drugs to the market make them the ideal partner for this program,” added Roger Tung, PhD, President and CEO of Concert Pharmaceuticals. “d-DM is a great example of how deuterium modification can, in favorable cases, create drug candidates with the unique opportunity for both substantially improved therapeutic properties over existing medicines, and lower development expense and risk compared to typical new chemical entities.”

d-DM was developed using Concert’s proprietary DCE Platform (Deuterated Chemical Entity Platform), and is a deuterium-containing analog of dextromethorphan. The deuterium-modified dextromethorphan compounds are covered under US Patent No. 7,973,049 that was issued to Concert in July 2011, as well as patent applications in other countries.

The incorporation of deuterium into specific molecular positions of dextromethorphan, resulting in d-DM, maintained the pharmacology of dextromethorphan and provided significantly enhanced resistance to CYP2D6 metabolism and improved plasma exposure in preclinical testing. As a result, d-DM has the potential to be effective as a treatment for neurological and psychiatric disorders for which dextromethorphan has shown pharmacological activity.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on bringing innovative medicines to patients with nervous system disorders of high unmet medical need. For more information about Avanir, please visit www.avanir.com.

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on applying the company’s DCE Platform (deuterated chemical entity platform) to create novel and differentiated small molecule drugs. Concert’s approach leverages decades of pharmaceutical and clinical experience to reduce the time, risk, and expense needed to create important new medicines. The company has a broad research pipeline encompassing many therapeutic areas, including antiviral disease, renal disease, and CNS disorders, among others. Founded in 2006, Concert has raised more than $110 million of venture and institutional capital. For more information on Concert Pharmaceuticals, please visit www.concertpharma.com.