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Sirion Building Ophthalmic Pipeline Via Sytera Merger
Continuing its recent flurry of in-licensing activities, ophthalmic drug company Sirion Therapeutics Inc. added a third compound to its clinical pipeline and gained a drug discovery unit through its acquisition of Sytera Inc.
Since it was formed in late December, Sirion?s goal has to been to ?build a pipeline that?s diverse across ophthalmic indications and across different stages of development,? said Barry Butler, president and CEO of Tampa, Fla.-based Sirion.
In June, the company licensed its first compound, a topical emulsion product containing the steroid difluprednate for moderate to severe ocular inflammation, from Senju Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan. A month later, Sirion gained rights to a topical cyclosporine product from Laboratorios Sophia SA de CV, of Guadalajara, Mexico.
Both products have completed extensive testing outside the U.S., so Sirion plans to move into Phase III trials of difluprednate in the second half of this year and in cyclosporine during the first half of 2007. If all goes as planned, they could hit the market in 2008.