Raleigh, NC-based BioDelivery Sciences International ($BDSI) has pieced together a $40 million raise from investors, providing the cash needed to wrap a critical late-stage pain therapy program on its way to a planned date with the FDA.
BioDelivery announced this morning that it had sold a mix of common stock and Series A shares at $4.21 a share. And much of that windfall will be earmarked for its Phase III study on BioErodible MucoAdhesive (BEMA) Buprenorphine for chronic pain, a necessary final step before it can file for marketing approval.
At the beginning of this year Endo Pharmaceuticals inked a $180 million pact to partner on the treatment, even though BDSI had just announced that the program had missed its primary endpoint in a Phase III study, which compared BEMA Buprenorphine with a placebo.
Both Endo and BDSI, as well as a group of existing investors, say that despite the trial failure of the program--which uses a novel delivery mechanism through the patient's cheeks--there was enough positive data to warrant continued work.
- here's the press release