News | Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

Friday 31st March 2006

SJ Berwin today announced that it has advised NicOx S.A, the emerging pharmaceutical research company listed on Eurolist, on a major agreement with Merck & Co., Inc to collaborate on the development of new antihypertensive drugs using NicOx's proprietary nitric oxide-donating technology.

The agreement follows the successful completion of the companies' research collaboration (see SJ Berwin press release dated 17 November 2005) and covers nitric-oxide donating derivatives of several major classes of antihypertensive agents, for the treatment of high blood pressure, complications of hypertension and other cardiovascular and related disorders.  Merck has the exclusive right to develop and commercialise antihypertensives that use NicOx's technology for the treatment of systemic hypertension.

NicOx will receive an upfront payment of €9.2 million (US$ 11.2 million) and is eligible for potential further milestone payments of €279 million (US$340.2 million). NicOx has the option to co-promote products that result from the agreement to specialist physicians in the United States and certain major European countries, on a fee for detail basis. In addition, Merck will pay NicOx industry standard royalties on the sales of all products resulting from the collaboration.

Andrew Shindler, a partner in SJ Berwin's Pharmaceutical Group, who has acted for NicOx since its formation and advised it on the agreement commented: "This, the latest in a number of major international agreements we have worked on for NicOx, was an interesting, complicated and significant deal.  We very much enjoyed working on it with the NicOx team and their counterparts at Merck.  The collaboration contains many of the elements which make this such an exciting area to be involved in and aims to address one of the world’s leading health problems.  We hope it brings success to both parties and is of significant benefit to patients all over the world."
Damian Marron, NicOx's Vice President Corporate Development, added "A strong legal negotiation and support team is essential in successfully closing deals of this nature and complexity.  Andrew Shindler and his group at SJ Berwin have met the challenge again with this complex deal, as they have done so throughout their association with NicOx.  We look forward to continuing this successful partnership as NicOx builds on its collaborations in the future."

Merck was represented by its in house legal team, led by Scott Kauffman.

Contacts:

NicOx: Karl Hanks -  Manager of Corporate Relations and Market Analysis – Tel +33 (0)497 15 22 03 – hanks@nicox.com – www.nicox.com

• Investors in the United States – Burns McClellan: Lisa Burns – lburns@burnsmc.com / Laura Siino – lsiino@burnsmc.com

• Financial Dynamics: Jonathan Birt – Tel +1 212 850 56 34 – jbirt@fd-us.com / Julia Phillips – Tel +44 (0)20 7831 3113 – Julia.phillips@fd.com

SJ Berwin LLP

• 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); product liability claims, and a wide spectrum of associated corporate and commercial advice relating to the pharmaceutical world.

NicOx S.A.

• NicOx S.A (Bloomberg: COX:FP, Reuters: NCOX.LN), is a product-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of nitric oxide-donating drugs to meet unmet medical needs.  NicOx is targeting the therapeutic areas of inflammatory and cardio-metabolic diseases.  Resources are focused on two lead compounds, HCT 3012, in phase 3 development for the treatment of osteoarthritis, and NCX 4016, in phase 2 for Peripheral Arterial Obstructive Disease (PAOD).  NicOx has strategic partnerships with some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer Inc. and Merck and Co. Inc.
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  NicOx S.A. is headquartered in Sophia-Antipolis, France, and is a public company listed on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris (segment: Next Economy).