Pacira in Agreement to Acquire Myoscience for Opioid Alternative

The challenge of combatting the opioid epidemic just took an interesting turn. A pharmaceutical company is now pushing to acquire a medtech company with a device that could help reduce opioid use.

Pacira Pharmaceuticals has signed an agreement to acquire Myoscience for up to $220 million in a deal set to close in April. The agreement calls for Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ-based Pacira to pay $120 million cash up front and an additional $100 million upon the achievement of commercial and regulatory milestones.

Once the merger is complete, Pacira would obtain Fremont, CA-based Myoscience’s iovera technology. The device freezes nerves through cryoneurolysis and delivers pain relief. The iovera System is FDA-cleared to relieve pain and symptoms associated with osteoarthritis of the knee for up to 90 days.

Join us at MD&M East for a panel titled Packaging Solutions for the Opioid Crisis held June 12.

When the deal closes, the iovera system will join Pacira Pharmaceuticals list of non-opioid related products.

“We are confident that Pacira is the ideal organization to bring this technology to more physicians and their patients in need of effective non-opioid pain relief,” Timothy Still, president/CEO of Myoscience said in a release. “We are proud of the impact our technology has made and we are excited to see iovera° reach its full potential as part of the Pacira portfolio.”

Industry’s Response

The industry has been looking for alternatives to opioid use for some time now. Companies were given a call to arms by FDA in June of last year, when the agency launched an innovation challenge to spur the development of devices, digital health technologies, and diagnostic tests that could provide a novel solution in response to the opioid epidemic.

Dublin-based Medtronic announced in January it was launching a post-market study that would look at the use of the SynchroMed II intrathecal drug delivery system as an alternative to oral opioids.

Recently, Verily said it would a one-stop Rehabilitation Center in Dayton, OH to function as a learning health system. Dubbed One Fifteen, the proposed rehabilitation center is part of a partnership Verily has with healthcare providers Kettering Health Network and Premier Health, and in partnership with Alexandria Real Estate Equities.