Labopharm Inc's wholly owned subsidiary, Labopharm Europe Limited, has completed a licensing and distribution agreement for once-daily tramadol with Nippon Shinyaku Co, Ltd of Japan.

Labopharm will receive an up-front payment upon signature of the agreement and is eligible to receive additional payments related to the achievement of certain regulatory and commercialization milestones.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nippon Shinyaku has the exclusive right to market and sell Labopharm's once-daily tramadol product in Japan. Labopharm will supply Nippon Shinyaku with unpackaged tablets and will receive a fixed transfer price, as well as a royalty on net sales of the product. Regulatory approval in Japan may require additional clinical trials and Nippon Shinyaku will assume all costs related to the clinical and regulatory approval process.

Nippon Shinyaku aims to be trusted and respected by the society as an indispensable entity with significance of existence in the healthcare industry.

Headquartered in Laval, Canada with US offices in Princeton, New Jersey, Labopharm is an emerging leader in optimizing the performance of existing small molecule drugs using its proprietary controlled-release technologies.