DURHAM — Dova Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced that it entered into an exclusive agreement with Salix Pharmaceuticals to co-promote Doptelet in the United States, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday.
Salix intends to use approximately 100 sales specialists who will promote Doptelet to gastroenterology health care professionals. They will begin selling Doptelet in mid-October 2018.
According to the agreement, Dova will pay Salix a quarterly fee based on net sales of Doptelet prescribed by gastroenterologists in the U.S.
Dova Pharmaceuticals
“Given Salix’s presence and strong reputation within large gastroenterology group practices coupled with the early interest we are seeing among the gastroenterology community, we are excited to see the impact this partnership will bring to Doptelet and to patients,” said Dova CEO Alex C. Sapir in a statement.
Dopetelet was approved by U.S. Food and Drug Administration on May 21 for the treatment of thrombocytopenia in adult patients with chronic liver disease who are scheduled to undergo a procedure. It represents the first thrombopoietin receptor agonist approved in the United States for this indication.
The co-promotion of Doptelet in the United States will be supervised by a joint steering committee composed of an equal number of representatives from the Dova and Salix.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dova will remain responsible for the costs of maintaining regulatory approval of, manufacturing, supplying and distributing Doptelet.
Based in Durham, Dova is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on acquiring, developing, and commercializing drug candidates for rare diseases.
Dova’s stock was up 11.3 percent in pre-market trading, but went down during the day, closing at $21.84 on Thursday, down 1.8 percent from the previous day.
This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism
