News | Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

Thursday 11th October 2007

SJ Berwin today announced that it has advised Neurim Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Neurim S.A. on the licensing of Circadin® to H.Lundbeck A/S. The licence covers the treatment of primary insomnia for the majority of markets in Europe including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, with an exclusive option to evaluate commercialisation in markets outside Europe.

Circadin®, a novel sleep aid, was approved by the European Commission 29 June 2007 indicated as monotherapy for the short-term treatment of primary insomnia characterized by poor quality of sleep in patients who are aged 55 or over. Lundbeck expects to launch Circadin® in the first markets during 2008. Under the terms of the agreement, Neurim receives an upfront payment and a share of revenue. Neurim is responsible for manufacturing.

Andrew Shindler, a partner in SJ Berwin's Pharmaceutical Group, who acted for Neurim Pharmaceuticals Ltd commented: "We very much enjoyed working with the Neurim team on this exciting and significant deal, which presented all the challenges of international pharmaceutical licensing. We hope the licensed product will benefit many patients in years to come and brings success both to our client Neurim and to Lundbeck."

Dr. Francesca Stingele, Managing Director, Neurim S.A. added: "We are very pleased with the outcome of our negotiations with Lundbeck. We are delighted that Circadin® will be represented in these key markets by a partner with such a pre-eminent reputation in and commitment to medicines for the treatment of central nervous system  isorders. We look forward to the pan-European launch of our product."

Lundbeck was represented by its in-house legal team.

For further information please contact:

SJ Berwin LLP
Andrew Shindler, Partner (UK) on +44 (0)20 7111 2638 or by emailing andrew.shindler@sjberwin.com

Martin Punt, Business Development on +44 (0)20 7111 5340 or by emailing martin.punt@sjberwin.com

Neurim S.A.:
Dr. Francesca Stingele, Managing Director on +41 21 641 1580, or by emailing francesca.stingele@bluewin.ch

• SJ Berwin has a very active and highly rated Pharmaceutical Group advising on a wide range of legal issues from licensing in and out of pharmaceutical products; advising on and drafting R&D and distribution agreements; contentious and non-contentious intellectual property related work, pharmaceutical regulatory law (in particular the application of EU pharmaceutical legislation, and anti-trust and unfair competition); and a wide spectrum of associated corporate and commercial advice relating to the pharmaceutical world.
  
  
• Neurim Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (1991) headquartered in Israel with a business development unit in Switzerland, is a drug discovery and development company founded in 1991. Neurim is focused on age-related disorders, primarily in the central nervous system (CNS). The main goal is to improve the quality of life in the older patient population. Circadin is the company's first product reaching marketing approval. Other products are at various stages of preclinical and clinical development. For further information, please visit www.neurim.com.