Durect Corp. and Voyager Pharmaceutical Corp. entered a development and commercialization agreement on a product using Voyager's patented product for Alzheimer's disease.

Durect, of Cupertino, Calif., will use its Durin drug delivery technology to provide a sustained-release therapy.

"It's our theory and hypothesis that Alzheimer's disease is caused by erroneous cell division in the brain, and we believe we've shown in the lab that by stopping this cell division, it stops the disease," Voyager CEO Patrick Smith told BioWorld Today.

The agreement gives Raleigh, N.C.-based Voyager the rights to commercialize the product worldwide. Durect will receive from Voyager undisclosed milestone payments, funding for all its efforts related to the development of the product, and royalties on product sales.

Voyager's science is based on the discoveries of Richard Bowen, who now serves the company as chairman and executive vice president, scientific and medical affairs, Smith said. Voyager uses leuprolide acetate, a treatment for prostate cancer, for Alzheimer's disease instead.

"Durect is helping us develop a dosage of leuprolide acetate that will meet the needs of our particular patient population," Smith said.

Voyager expects to be in the clinic within 12 to 18 months, he said. "Our hope and our plan is to be commercial sometime in 2006," Smith added.

Voyager, a privately held company, is the entity that was in search of a partner, and the company ultimately chose Durect, said Durect Chief Scientific Officer Felix Theeuwes.

"Voyager is a very experienced team of scientists and people with a considerable amount of experience in the pharma business," Theeuwes said. "They came to the conclusion that we were best."

Theeuwes said the advantage is that the companies will not be working with a new chemical entity, but a drug that has been in use for many years.

"Obviously, the compound itself is well understood that there is a considerable amount of safety," Theeuwes said.

The companies said Alzheimer's disease affects more than 4 million people in the U.S., where the market for drugs to treat the neurodegenerative disorder is estimated to be in excess of $10 billion.

The product candidate for Alzheimer's disease is the first of Voyager's products to be developed.

"We have a number of further patent applications for a number of diseases of senescence, but it's based on the antigonadotropin platform," Smith said.

Voyager has 10 full-time employees and about 25 part-time consultants and collaborators. Although Voyager is involved in other research collaborations, the agreement with Durect is the only one that has been disclosed, Smith said.

Durect's focus is a combined one of therapeutics and devices in an attempt to develop systems that "deliver the right drug to the right place in the right amount at the right time," the company said.

The company's lead product is the Chronogesic, or sufentanil, pain therapy system designed for the treatment of chronic pain. Durect has completed a pilot Phase III trial and is planning a pivotal Phase III soon.

Durect has two other delivery systems, Saber and Microdur. The Saber delivery system is a controlled-release technology for systemic or local administration of active agents such as proteins and small molecules, the company said.

Durect said the Microdur technology consists of a biodegradable microparticulate injectable depot.

Durect was established as a spinout of ALZA Corp., of Mountain View, Calif., which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson, of New Brunswick, N.J., in 2001.

Durect's stock (NASDAQ:DRRX) fell 20 cents Monday to close at $6.75.