Acura Pharmaceuticals Provides Update on FDA Discussions Surrounding Development of Aversion Hydrocodone With Acetaminophen Tablet

PALATINE, IL--(Marketwired - Aug 15, 2014) - Acura Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACUR), announced today preliminary discussions from a meeting held with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the development pathway for Acura's AVERSION® hydrocodone with acetaminophen tablet development candidate, which is intended to provide abuse-deterrent features to address abuse by nasal snorting and injection. In a May 2014 letter to Acura, FDA questioned the relevance of abuse of hydrocodone with acetaminophen products by nasal snorting after reviewing clinical and epidemiology data submitted by Acura.

The FDA continues to question the relevance of abuse of hydrocodone with acetaminophen products by the intranasal route of administration and suggested additional information may help better inform their decision. The FDA indicated in the discussions that Acura may conduct an additional nasal abuse liability study for its AVERSION hydrocodone with acetaminophen product candidate, the outcomes of which may help inform the relevance decision as well as establish a reduction in drug liking, which was not statistically significant in an earlier Acura study (Study AP-ADF-301). The FDA requested further time to deliberate on the issues discussed during the meeting before issuing final meeting minutes.

Acura intends to review its clinical data from Study AP-ADF-301 to determine whether to proceed with an additional clinical study for its AVERSION hydrocodone with acetaminophen product candidate and to further evaluate options to address the issues of intranasal abuse and drug liking raised by the FDA.

About Acura Pharmaceuticals
Acura Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development and commercialization of product candidates intended to address medication abuse and misuse, utilizing its proprietary AVERSION® and IMPEDE® Technologies. AVERSION® contains polymers that cause the drug to gel when dissolved; it also contains compounds that irritate the nasal passages. IMPEDE® is designed to disrupt the processing of pseudoephedrine from tablets into methamphetamine.

In June 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved our oxycodone HCl immediate-release tablets which incorporate the AVERSION® Technology. The Company has a development pipeline of additional AVERSION® Technology products containing other opioids.

In December 2012, the Company commenced commercialization of NEXAFED® [pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (HCl)], a 30 mg immediate-release abuse-deterrent decongestant. The next generation pseudoephedrine tablet combines effective nasal congestion relief with IMPEDE® Technology, a unique polymer matrix that disrupts the conversion of pseudoephedrine into the dangerous drug, methamphetamine.