DOV Pharmaceutical Announces Termination Of License Agreement With Merck & Co., Inc.

SOMERSET, N.J., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- DOV Pharmaceutical, Inc. (PS: DOVP.PK) announced today that the license agreement with Merck & Co., Inc, through a Merck affiliate, for DOV 21,947 and DOV 216,303, has been terminated by the parties effective December 6, 2006.

As a result of this termination, DOV has regained all rights to the compounds, which will enable the Company to increase its focus on its reuptake inhibitor program and pursue broad partnership opportunities with respect to this program as part of its new strategic direction. There are no payments due to Merck upon this termination.

About DOV DOV is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, acquisition and development of novel drug candidates for central nervous system disorders. The Company's product candidates address some of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world including depression, pain and insomnia.

Cautionary Note

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act, each as amended, including statements regarding our expectations with respect to the progress of and level of expenses for our clinical trial programs. You can also identify forward-looking statements by the following words: may, will, should, expect, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, potential, continue or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. We caution you that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and are simply point-in-time estimates based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us about which we cannot be certain or even relatively confident. Actual results or events will surely differ and may differ materially from our forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, some of which we may not be able to predict or may not be within our control. Such factors may also materially adversely affect our ability to achieve our objectives and to successfully develop and commercialize our product candidates, including our ability to:

* negotiate with our bond holders; * raise substantial additional capital in order to repurchase debentures that a holder tenders to us for repurchase; * raise substantial additional capital in order to fund operations; * obtain and maintain all necessary patents, licenses and other intellectual property rights; * demonstrate the safety and efficacy of product candidates at each stage of development; * perform required regulatory close-out activities for our clinical programs for bicifadine, our novel analgesic; * meet our development schedule for our product candidates, including with respect to clinical trial initiation, enrollment and completion; * meet applicable regulatory standards and receive required regulatory approvals on our anticipated time schedule or at all; * meet or require our partners to meet obligations and achieve milestones under our license and other agreements; * obtain and maintain collaborations as required with pharmaceutical partners; * obtain substantial additional funds; and * produce drug candidates in commercial quantities at reasonable costs and compete successfully against other products and companies.

You should also refer to the risks discussed in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including those contained in our annual report on Form 10-K filed on March 15, 2006 and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006. We qualify all our forward- looking statements by these cautionary statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake any obligation and do not intend to update any forward-looking statement.

Source: DOV Pharmaceutical, Inc.

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