Accentia Biopharmaceuticals Inc. has entered into an exclusive license with Collegium Pharmaceuticals Inc to market in the US, a branded intranasal steroid intended for the symptoms of seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis.

According to a company release, this product will be marketed by Accentia's specialty pharmaceutical division, TEAMM Pharmaceuticals. This license will expand Accentia's pipeline of innovative products for respiratory diseases and enable Accentia to enter the large intranasal steroid market. Collegium plans to file a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) in 2006 for this patent-pending aqueous nasal spray formulation.

"The intranasal steroid market in the US represents approximately $2.7 billion dollars in annual sales. The primary competition for this market has been prescription non-sedating oral antihistamine products which have annual sales in excess of $4 billion dollars in the US. We anticipate that over the next several years many of the non-sedating antihistamines will migrate to the over-the-counter (OTC) marketplace. This anticipated shift in the market may benefit growth in the intranasal steroid prescription market. We believe that our new product will have a favourable profile within the nasal steroid market," said Michael Heffernan, president of Collegium.

"This is an excellent addition to our focus on innovative products to treat respiratory diseases. Our respiratory product portfolio includes the recently announced launch of our CRS fungal profile, a unique non-invasive test for confirmation of the diagnosis of chronic sinusitis and differentiation of it from allergic rhinitis," said Martin Baum, president and COO of specialty pharmaceuticals at Accentia.

"In early 2006, we expect to launch MDTurbo, a unique, patented delivery device for metered dose inhalers used to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition, our pipeline includes an intranasal antifungal which we are developing for chronic sinusitis under an investigational new drug application (IND)," added Baum.

Accentia Biopharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of late-stage clinical products in the therapeutic areas of respiratory disease and oncology.

Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc. is a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on the development of proprietary, late stage pharmaceutical products.