Vivus, Inc. has received a $140 million milestone payment from KV Pharmaceutical (KV) pursuant to the previously announced transfer of exclusive rights and assets related to Evamist.

Under the terms of the transfer, Vivus received an upfront payment of $10 million upon the May 15, 2007 closing. Vivus became eligible for an additional payment following the approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration on July 27, 2007.

Vivus is eligible to receive two additional one-time milestone payments based on sales milestones for Evamist through the term of the agreement with KV. The first, a $10 million payment will be due to Vivus when Evamist achieves $100 million in net annual sales and the second a $20 million payment will be due to Vivus when Evamist achieves $200 million in net annual sales.

On June 30, 2007, Vivus had cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities of $53.2 million. On a proforma basis, including the receipt of the $140 million, the cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities balance at June 30, 2007 would have been $193.2 million.

"With the receipt of the $140 million milestone payment from KV, I believe Vivus is in the strongest financial position in our history. We estimate that we can fully fund the phase 3 trials of Qnexa for obesity and maintain a strong cash position at the end of those phase 3 trials," stated Leland Wilson, president and chief executive officer of Vivus. "In addition, with our current financial resources, we anticipate that we may be able to expand our development pipeline with minimal financing risk in the future."