Antares Pharma, Inc announced the simultaneous signing of a license and an asset purchase agreement with Ferring International Center S.A. Under the terms of the exclusive license agreement Ferring obtained rights to certain intellectual property relating to Antares' proprietary transdermal gel delivery technology. Upon closing of the asset purchase agreement Ferring will purchase research equipment and assume responsibility for Antares' leased development facility in Allschwil, Switzerland. A majority of the current employees at the facility will become employees of Ferring. Importantly, these agreements will have no impact on Antares' current licenses, the transdermal clinical pipeline, or marketed products including Anturol LibiGel, Nestorone, and Elestrin. Financial terms of the agreements which consist of upfront payments and milestones were not disclosed.

"We are pleased that we have expanded our strong partnership with Ferring to include our transdermal gels and delighted that Ferring has agreed to retain a significant majority of our employees at our Allschwil facility," stated Paul K Wotton, president and chief executive officer.

"We are committed to developing ever more innovative and patient-convenient delivery systems for our compounds and this agreement is another step in our efforts in this direction," commented, Dr Pascal Danglas, Ferring's executive vice president Clinical & Product Development.

Dr Wotton continued, "These agreements represent another major step in focusing Antares on our growing parenteral injector business, without losing the potential upside from our marketed and clinical stage transdermal gel programmes, while at the same time reducing our overhead costs and burn rate."

Antares Pharma focuses on self-injection delivery technologies and topical gel-based pharmaceutical products.