Apricus Biosciences Receives $2.5M Payment From Abbott Laboratories

Apricus Biosciences

announced today that it received a $2.5 million payment from Abbott Laboratories

under its commercial partnership for Apricus Bio's Vitaros® drug for erectile dysfunction ("ED") in Canada. Also, Apricus Bio successfully produced six consecutive commercial size validation batches of Vitaros®, the Company's treatment for ED in 220 mcg and 330 mcg forms. "The successful manufacturing of Vitaros® has been a great accomplishment for Apricus Bio as this was the first time that this drug has been manufactured on a commercial scale," said Dr. Bassam Damaj, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer. "This is an important step in placing Vitaros® into the hands of urologists in Canada and represents another completed milestone in our strategic collaboration with Abbott and in our global commercial strategy for Vitaros®. Now that we have completed our commercial size validation batches for Canada, our manufacturing team is focusing on producing additional Vitaros® commercial batches for Abbott in Canada and for our U.S. partner, Warner Chilcott, as disclosed by us recently." Dr. Damaj continued, "We believe that Vitaros® will be an attractive alternative for many patients with erectile