Drugmaker Cipla Ltd has entered into a global licensing agreement (except for East Asia) with MEDRx Company Ltd to develop and commercialise MRX-4TZT, a Tizanidine1 patch for the management of spasticity.
MEDRx is eligible to receive up to $30 million through upfront and developmental, regulatory and commercial milestones payments, a note from Cipla said. MEDRx will also receive tiered royalties on the net sales of commercialised licenced products.
MRX-4TZT is a medicated patch that uses ILTS (Ionic Liquid Transdermal System), an exclusive MEDRx technology to deliver Tizanidine, a centrally acting muscle relaxant.
MEDRx has concluded early stage phase-I trials in the US.
Annual sales of muscle relaxants in the US is pegged at $807 million in 2016. And MRX-4TZT is expected to be the first transdermal muscle relaxant worldwide.
Delivering Tizanidine through the skin rather than orally is expected to improve patient experience with better efficacy and a reduction of adverse events and side effects linked to the drug, the company said.
Cipla plans to initiate late stage or phase-III clinical trials after completion of additional phase-I studies, it added.