News | Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

Tuesday 18th June 2002

SJ Berwin advised French pharmaceutical company NicOx on a development and licensing agreement with Axcan Pharma for NicOx's compound NCX 1000, for the treatment of chronic liver diseases including portal hypertension and Hepatitis C.

Under the agreement Axcan has exclusive marketing rights in Canada, Poland and an option for the USA, while NicOx retains exclusive rights in the rest of the world, except for France where the companies will jointly market the developed product.

Chronic liver diseases generally progress slowly from inflammation to fibrosis to cirrhosis and liver failure. Cirrhosis as a result of chronic liver disease ranks in the top 15 causes of death worldwide. Globally an estimated 170 million people are infected with Hepatitis C and 350 million with Hepatitis B and it is estimated that up to 25% of those who are chronically infected will develop portal hypertension and/or cirrhosis.

SJ Berwin partner Andrew Shindler advised NicOx and said:

"We are pleased to have advised NicOx on this agreement relating to a potentially highly significant drug in the treatment of chronic liver diseases".

Axcan was advised by Francois Painchaud, a partner at Canadian lawyers L?ger Robic Richard.

• SJ Berwin is a full-service international legal practice with more than 470 lawyers across its offices in London, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Madrid and Paris.
• The firm recently won "Best Law Firm (fund documentation)" at the PrivateEquityOnline Awards, and was runner up in the category of "Best Law Firm (transactions)". It has also recently been shortlisted for "Legal Adviser of the Year" at the Private Equity Awards 2002.
• SJ Berwin has also recently won the European Venture Capital Journal Award for Private Equity Law Firm of the Year 2000, Law Firm of the Year and Property Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2000 and Competition Team of the Year at the Legal Business Awards 2000.
• NicOx is an emerging pharmaceutical company using recently-discovered properties of nitrix oxide to design and develop safer and more effective drugs. Headquartered in Sophia-Antipolis, France, NicOx is a public company listed on the Nouveau March? of Euronext Paris. Further information can be found at www.nicox.com
• Axcan Pharma is a North American pharmaceutical company involved in the research, development, production and marketing of innovative products in the field of gastroenterology. For further information visit www.axcan.com.