DURECT Announces Submission of New Drug Application for POSIDUR™ (SABER®-Bupivacaine)

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Apr 16, 2013, 07:00 ET

CUPERTINO, Calif., April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- DURECT Corporation (Nasdaq: DRRX) today announced the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the investigational product POSIDUR (SABER^®-Bupivacaine). POSIDUR is a post-operative pain relief depot that utilizes DURECT's patented SABER technology to deliver bupivacaine and is designed to provide up to three days of pain relief after surgery. DURECT submitted the NDA as a 505(b)(2) application.

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"We're extremely pleased to submit this NDA for POSIDUR to the FDA. If approved by the FDA, POSIDUR will provide a non-opioid alternative treatment option for post-surgical pain," James E. Brown, D.V.M., President and CEO of DURECT, stated, "Treating post-surgical pain with a true long-acting local anesthetic has the potential benefit of reducing the need for opioids and their associated systemic side effects that can prolong the time to recovery and result in extended hospital stays."

We expect that the FDA will notify us whether our NDA submission has been accepted for filing within 74 days of submission, which the FDA bases on their initial 60-day review of the completeness of our application. If accepted for filing, the FDA would be expected to assign a PDUFA date of 10 months after the submission.

About POSIDUR

POSIDUR is a post-operative pain relief depot that utilizes DURECT's patented SABER^® technology to deliver bupivacaine to provide up to three days of pain relief after surgery. We are in discussions with potential partners regarding licensing development and commercialization rights to POSIDUR, for which we hold worldwide rights.

About DURECT Corporation

DURECT is a specialty pharmaceutical company developing innovative drugs for pain and other chronic diseases, with late-stage development programs including REMOXY^®, POSIDUR^™, ELADUR^®, and TRANSDUR^®-Sufentanil. DURECT's proprietary oral, transdermal and injectable depot delivery technologies enable new indications and superior clinical/commercial attributes such as abuse deterrence, improved convenience, compliance, efficacy and safety for small molecule and biologic drugs. For more information, please visit www.durect.com.

DURECT Forward-Looking Statement

The statements in this press release regarding POSIDUR, submission of the NDA to the FDA and possible acceptance and/or approval of the NDA by the FDA, the potential benefits and uses of POSIDUR and discussions with potential partners regarding licensing are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk of adverse decisions by regulatory agencies, including product non-approval, delays and additional costs due to requirements imposed by regulatory agencies, potential adverse effects arising from the testing or use of POSIDUR, the potential that the data that we have generated may not be deemed sufficient by FDA or other regulatory agencies to support regulatory approval of POSIDUR, our potential inability to license rights to POSIDUR on commercially acceptable terms, or at all, and the risk of obtaining marketplace acceptance of POSIDUR, avoiding infringing patents held by other parties and securing and defending patents of our own, and managing and obtaining capital to fund our growth, operations and expenses. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in DURECT's Form 10-K on March 1, 2013 under the heading "Risk Factors."

NOTE: POSIDUR^™, SABER^®, TRANSDUR^®, and ELADUR^™ are trademarks of DURECT Corporation. REMOXY, POSIDUR, ELADUR and TRANSDUR-Sufentanil are drug candidates under development and have not been approved for commercialization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other health authorities.

SOURCE DURECT Corporation