Amerigen Pharmaceuticals and AustarPharma Enter Into Collaboration Agreement for Generic Oral Controlled Release Products

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. and EDISON, N.J., June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Limited and AustarPharma, LLC today announced they had entered into a broad-based collaboration agreement regarding the development of generic oral controlled release products. Under the terms of the agreement, AustarPharma will use its proprietary technologies to develop and manufacture products for Amerigen to commercialize in the United States and other territories. AustarPharma received an up-front fee and is eligible for additional product specific development milestones, plus manufacturing revenues and royalties on any commercialized products.

"This collaboration allows Amerigen to augment its internal product development activities and accelerate the company's efforts to build a portfolio of differentiated, high value generic pharmaceuticals," said Jonathan Embleton, Chief Business Officer for Amerigen. "We look forward to working with AustarPharma to complete the development and file for approval for some technically very challenging products."

President & CEO of AustarPharma, Dr Ron Liu commented, "As a technology based company, AustarPharma focuses on developing high technology barrier products. The combination of Amerigen's development, regulatory and commercial capabilities and AustarPharma's advanced controlled-release technologies in generic drug development will greatly benefit both companies. We highly value this collaboration."

About Amerigen

Amerigen Pharmaceuticals is a group of companies engaged in all phases of the generic pharmaceutical business, with operations in the US and China. The group is controlled by Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Limited. The US regulatory and commercial activities within the group are conducted by Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in East Brunswick, NJ, USA. The group's Chinese subsidiary, Suzhou Amerigen Pharmaceuticals Limited, is located in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The group has an active portfolio of products under development, filed, or intended for filing, as ANDA's with the US FDA and the Chinese SFDA. Amerigen's focus is orally delivered products that are challenging to develop, require specialized technologies or high containment to manufacture, and present complex regulatory and intellectual property obstacles to bring to market. All Amerigen's products are developed and manufactured by the company or its partners around the world to meet the highest quality standards, including the US FDA.

About AustarPharma

AustarPharma is a technology based pharmaceutical company based in Edison NJ, USA. The core competencies of the company are advanced drug delivery technologies. The key established platform technologies include several controlled-release technologies, such as osmotic pump extended-release technology, and many solubilization technologies used to enhance bioavailability and reduce bio-variability of water-insoluble drugs.  AustarPharma has taken advantages of these platform technologies to collaborate with multiple companies in the US and overseas to develop high technology barrier products. With the acquisition of Abbott's cGMP commercial manufacturing and testing facility at Edison, NJ in 2009, AustarPharma is now able to develop a drug product from very beginning in laboratories all the way to commercialization in the US and worldwide markets.

SOURCE Amerigen Pharmaceuticals