Cure Pharmaceutical is cashing in some of its drug delivery intellectual property, selling patents covering film-based drug delivery to TF Tech Ventures in a deal worth $20 million.
The deal covers around 20 issued and pending patents, plus trademarks related to Cure, its branding and its technologies. In return, TF Tech will cancel Cure’s $4.15 million debt and pay $2 million in the form of a secured promissory note and cash to bring the total value of the deal up to $20 million. Cure, which is including its logo and website in the deal, will use the cash to pivot to wellness and beauty.
TF Tech emerges from the agreement with a drug delivery intellectual property portfolio. The list of intellectual property covered by the deal includes two patents relating to an oral soluble film containing sildenafil citrate, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in erectile dysfunction drug Viagra.
Earlier this year, Cure teamed up with Milagro Pharmaceuticals to bring an oral soluble form of sildenafil citrate, branded Curefilm Blue, to market in Mexico. The deal with TF Tech includes the trademark Curefilm.
Other drug delivery patents covered by the deal address methods of minimizing heat, moisture and shear damage during the production of edible films, thin films with high active ingredient loads, films containing vitamin D3 and rapidly disintegrating oral film matrices.
Cure’s share price fell slightly in the wake of the news, bringing its market cap down to $22 million, but later rose back up toward its original level.