Chapel Hill drug developer Cempra Pharmaceuticals announced a licensing agreement Tuesday worth up to $70 million and structured to help the underfunded company finance development of its most promising antibiotic treatment.

Under the deal, Toyama Chemical Co. will have exclusive rights in Japan to develop and commercialize solithromycin, Cempra's lead experimental drug. In exchange, Cempra will receive an upfront payment of $10 million and up to $60 million in milestone payments.

Cempra said Japan is the world's second-largest antibiotic market and Toyama "will commit significant resources" to developing solithromycin, a treatment for pneumonia and respiratory tract infections.

Vestiq Pharmaceuticals, the Triangle's newest pharmaceutical company, launched its third product Tuesday as part of a strategy of buying or licensing approved drugs.

The Morrisville company said it has acquired distribution rights for GelX Oral Gel from Nevada-based BMG Pharma. The product treats oral mucositis caused by chemotheraphy, radiation and other therapies.

Vestiq is a niche company that specializes in medicines with alternative delivery mechanisms to counter the side effects of cancer treatment. Vestiq does not develop or manufacture drugs.

The company has two other products, Zuplenz and Oravig, that function as specialized release applications of medications that are have been available in conventional pill form.

Vestiq has 11 employees in Morrisville and about 75 around the country, mostly sales representatives who pitch Vestiq's products to doctors.

Chapel Hill drug company Pozen reported a smaller net loss in the second quarter that beat Wall Street estimates.

Pozen reported a net loss of $5.1 million, or 17 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $6.4 million, or 21 cents per share, loss in the second quarter of 2011. Analysts had forecasted a loss of 22 cents.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.8 million, compared to $4.6 million during the same period a year ago.

Operating expenses were down 37 percent in quarter, largely because of the completion of Phase 3 studies of Pozen's experimental drug PA32540.

Merck announced Tuesday that it will spend $15 million renovating and expanding its facility in Wilson.

The capital projects, which include overhauling existing manufacturing space and adding a cold storage facility for vaccine packaging, will not increase the company’s workforce at the site.

Merck employs about 400 people at its 225-acre packaging center in Wilson, which opened in 1983.

Most of the Merck pharmaceutical products now packaged in Wilson are done so at room temperature.

Vaccines, which are a growing part of Merck’s business, require expansive cold storage space.

Merck has a vaccine plant in Durham that is poised to become the largest live-vaccine production facility in the world.

The rapidly growing lab, which makes chicken pox vaccine, employs more than 700 today and could expand to 1,000 workers at full production.

By 2013 Merck expects to be making at the Durham facility at least four vaccines for shingles, measles, mumps and rubella.

Patheon, the Canadian drug maker with headquarters in Research Triangle Park, reported an operating loss in the first quarter as revenues declined 12 percent.

The company reported revenues of $153.9 million, down from $175.7 million during the same period a year ago.

Patheon had an operating loss of $20.9 million, compared to operating income of $13.5 million in the first quarter of last year.

The company manufactures prescription drugs and provides other services, such as developing the formulation of experimental drugs. It employs about 50 in RTP. None of Patheon's nine manufacturing facilities is based in the Triangle.

Chapel Hill drug company Pozen's reported this morning that its revenue more than doubled in the fourth quarter thanks to a royalty payment for the U.S. rights to its experimental migraine drug.

The company had revenue of $73 million for the quarter, up from $29 million during the same period in 2010. Nearly all of that was from royalty payments the company received for the U.S. rights to Treximet.

In November, Pozen announced it had sold those rights to CPPIB Credit Investments, a Canadian investment firm fir $75 million, which netted the company proceeds of $71.9 million.

Pozen's net income for the quarter was $61.5 million, or $2.04 per share, compared to net income of $18.4, or 61 cents per share, during the fourth quarter of 2010.

That beat the $1.98 per share that was the consensus among the two analysts who cover the company.

Salix Pharmaceuticals reported fourth quarter earnings late today that beat Wall Street estimates thanks to robust sales of its best-selling drug Xifaxan.

The Raleigh company reported revenue of $155.2 million for the quarter, up 31 percent from the same period in 2010. Net income, excluding certain charges, for the quarter was $76 million, or $1.18 per share.

That beat the 93 cents per share that was the consensus among Wall Street analysts who cover the company.

For the year, Salix reported revenue of $540.5 million, up 60 percent from 2010.

Salix sells drugs to treat gastrointestinal ailments. Xifaxan is approved to treat travelers' diarrhea and hepatic encephalopathy, a rare liver condition.

Xifaxan revenue for the quarter was $107.2 million, up 29 percent from the same period in 2010. Xifaxan revenue for the year was $371.7 million, up 48 percent.

In a statement, Salix's chief financial officer, Adam Derbyshire, said the company expects revenues in 2012 to increase 36 percent to about $735 million.

Salix shares closed today up 3 cents at $46.14. The stock is up 38 percent over the past year.

Cempra Pharmaceuticals expects the offering price for its planned IPO to be between $11 and $13, the Chapel Hill company reported in a regulatory filing last week.

The company, which filed to go public in October, had earlier said it hoped to raise nearly $90 million through the offering.

Cempra is developing treatments for drug-resistant skin infections and pneumonia. The company has two antibiotics in clinical trials.

One targets patients with pneumonia. The other is being tested as a treatment for skin infections, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
 

Durham drug company BioCryst Pharmaceuticals announced today positive findings from a recent study involving its experimental gout treatment.

Jon Stonehouse, BioCryst's CEO, said on a conference call with analysts that the company will meet with federal regulators in the coming months to extend the current studies involving the treatment.

"These results give us momentum as we enter 2012 and make it a very exciting year for BioCryst," he said.

BioCryst increased investment in its gout treatment, BCX4208, after receiving $23 million in March by borrowing on royalty payments anticipated from Shinogi, which has licensed the Japanese rights to BioCryst's flu treatment peramivir.
 

Chapel Hill drug company Pozen reported a narrower loss in the third quarter thanks to increased revenues from its migraine medicine Treximet.

Pozen reported a loss for the quarter of 7.1. million, or 24 cents per share, compared to $8.6 million, or 29 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.

That equalled the consensus among analysts who cover the company.

Revenue for the third quarter was $4.9 million, compared to $4.3 million during the same period a year ago.

Most of Pozen's revenue comes from its Treximet migraine medicine, which is sold by larger partner GlaxoSmithKline, and its Vimovo arthritis pain reliever, sold by AstraZeneca. Pozen receives royalties from the sales.