Cygnus, Inc.
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Inks agreement to sell assets of its drug delivery business to Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, a Johnson & Johnson company. Ortho-McNeil will pay up to $75 mil. in cash, contingent on the achievement of regulatory, technical and commercial milestones for the contraceptive patch Cygnus is developing with R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, another J&J company. Cygnus will retain those assets relating to a nicotine patch under development. Company Chairman, President and CEO John Hodgman explained that the deal would allow Cygnus to "focus management attention and corporate resources on the GlucoWatch monitor and its propietary sensor technology." The GlucoWatch non-invasive glucose monitoring system premarket approval application will be reviewed by FDA's Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Toxicology Panel on Dec. 9 (1"The Gray Sheet" Nov. 1, In Brief)