Mission, EffRx sign agreement for osteoporosis drug

SAN ANTONIO — A U.S. drug maker has made a deal with a Swiss company to manufacture and sell a new osteoporosis treatment in North America.



Mission Pharmacal announced Tuesday a patent and technology licensing agreement with Freienbach, Switzerland-based EffRx Pharmaceuticals for Binosto (alendronate sodium) effervescent tablets in the United States and Canada. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug last month for osteoporosis in men and  postmenopausal women. The companies plan to make the drug available later this year. The drug is a strawberry-flavored effervescent tablet designed to rapidly dissolve in water.



"Binosto provides an important new innovation for patients with osteoporosis," National Osteoporosis Foundation president Robert Recker said. "Binosto offers those patients that struggle with taking tablets the opportunity to obtain the proven fracture prevention of alendronate in an easy-to-take, buffered solution."

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