North Carolina pharmaceutical company BioDelivery Sciences International is raising $15 million that it will use to continue development of its pipeline focused on a platform technology for drug delivery.
The financing is coming in the form of a private placement from institutional investors who have committed to the financing. Raleigh, North Carolina-based BDSI (NASDAQ:BDSI) did not disclose who the investors are and CEO Mark Sirgo, on a conference call discussing the investment, declined to name them.
“The investors who have invested at certain levels will have to make their own filings,” Sirgo said.
BDSI has a proprietary drug delivery system that administers medicine via a small piece of dissolvable film placed on the inside of the cheek. The company has commercialized Onsolis, which delivers the pain-killing drug Fentanyl to cancer patients experiencing “breakthrough pain.” The company is also developing the technology as a delivery mechanism for other drugs. A product that would deliver buprenorphine for moderate to severe chronic pain is expected to enter phase 3 clinical trials later this year. The company is also researching the technology as a way to deliver a drug treating opioid dependence.
Onsolis was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2009, but the product is still getting traction in the market. The drug received approvals in Canada and Europe last year. Revenue for Onsolis totaled $3.4 million in 2010. BDSI reported a net loss in that year of $16.3 million.
Related articles
- BioDelivery Sciences disputes patent infringement claim(medcitynews.com)
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
