Taglich Brothers Initiates Coverage On Apricus Biosciences

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - February 23, 2015) -

Taglich Brothers, Inc. announces it initiated coverage of Apricus Biosciences, Inc.

Apricus Biosciences, Inc., (NASDAQ: APRI) headquartered in San Diego, California, manufactures a treatment for erectile dysfunction and is developing pharmaceuticals to treat urological and rheumatoid disorders, and women’s sexual disorders. The company’s lead product, Vitaros, is a topical treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED), delivery of which is based on a proprietary permeation enhancer technology (NexACT®) which facilitates the delivery of the drug into the blood stream.

Vitaros is aimed at patients who have not responded satisfactorily to oral ED medications and prefer a treatment that is less invasive or easier to use than other alternatives. Vitaros is cleared for marketing in a number of European countries and in Canada.

Vitaros was launched in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Belgium in 2014. Revenue to date consists largely of upfront license fees. All product marketing is done by partners currently under exclusive licenses to sell Vitaros in Canada, Europe, most of Southeast Asia, the Mideast, Australia and New Zealand, and certain countries in Africa.

Revenue potential for Vitaros alone is substantial. Erectile dysfunction is a largely age-related ailment due in large measure to the incidence of such conditions as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease in older patient populations. While the majority of cases are successfully treated with oral phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors such as sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil, commonly known, respectively, as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, many ED patients are unresponsive to PDE5 inhibitors.

APRI has three more products in its pipeline. RayVa™, a rheumatology product, is now in a Phase 2a trial for the treatment of Raynaud’s Phenomenon, a symptom of rheumatic disease that causes numbness in the digits in response to cold temperatures or stress. RayVa also uses Apricus’ proprietary permeation enhancer. Apricus plans a 2015 Phase 2b clinical study of fispemifene, an in-licensed tissue-specific selective estrogen receptor modulator designed to treat secondary testosterone deficiency (hypogonadism), chronic prostatitis and lower urinary tract symptoms in men. Apricus is seeking one or more licensees to further develop and commercialize Femprox®, a potential treatment for female sexual interest/arousal disorder (FSIAD) that has been evaluated in earlier human studies.

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