ESP Pharma, Inc., a niche pharmaceutical company focused on the acquisition, marketing, and late-stage development of life-saving acute-care therapeutics, has acquired US and Canadian rights to Retavase (reteplase) from Centocor, Inc., a biopharmaceutical operating company of Johnson & Johnson. Scios Inc., another Johnson & Johnson company, currently markets the product on behalf of Centocor.

First introduced into the US market in 1997, Retavase belongs to the fibrinolytic or thrombolytic class of pharmaceutical agents used in the acute-care setting to dissolve coronary blood clots and improve blood flow in heart attack patients. Each year, in the US alone, more than one million people suffer a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction or AMI).

Retavase is indicated for use in the management of AMI in adults for the improvement of ventricular function following AMI, the reduction of the incidence of congestive heart failure, and the reduction of mortality associated with AMI.

John T. Spitznagel, ESP Pharma's chairman and CEO said, "The product is patent protected, addresses an important therapeutic need in our market space, and has growth prospects that ESP can exploit more fully through the application of our expertise and strengths in the acute-care market."

ESP Pharma noted that its acquisition of Retavase included distribution, manufacturing, development and marketing rights, all relevant intellectual property, and approximately two years supply of inventory plus certain manufacturing equipment.