DURECT CORP - Annual Report: 2017 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017

OR

For the transition period from                      to                     

Commission file number: 000-31615

DURECT CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

10260 Bubb Road

Cupertino, CA 95014

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (408) 777-1417

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    YES  ☐    NO  ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15 of the Act.    YES  ☐    NO  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period than the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    YES  ☒    NO  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    YES  ☒    NO  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§ 230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§ 240.12b-2 of this chapter).

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    YES  ☐    NO  ☒

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $135,648,965 as of June 30, 2017 based upon the closing sale price on The Nasdaq Global Market reported for such date. Shares of Common Stock held by each officer and director and by each person who may be deemed to be an affiliate have been excluded. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

There were 153,336,970 shares of the registrant’s Common Stock issued and outstanding as of March 2, 2018.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Part III incorporates information by reference from the definitive Proxy Statement for the 2018 annual meeting of stockholders, which is expected to be filed not later than 120 days after the Registrant’s fiscal year ended December 31, 2017.

DURECT CORPORATION

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company with research and development programs broadly falling into two categories: (i) new chemical entities derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program, in which we attempt to discover and develop molecules which have not previously been approved and marketed as therapeutics, and (ii) Drug Delivery Programs, in which we apply our formulation expertise and technologies largely to active pharmaceutical ingredients whose safety and efficacy have previously been established but which we aim to improve in some manner through a new formulation. We also manufacture and sell osmotic pumps used in laboratory research and design, develop and manufacture a wide range of standard and custom biodegradable polymers and excipients for pharmaceutical and medical device clients for use as raw materials in their products.

Our product pipeline currently consists of multiple investigational drug candidates in clinical development.  DUR‑928, a new chemical entity in Phase 2 development, is the lead candidate in DURECT’s Epigenetic Regulator Program.  An endogenous, orally bioavailable small molecule, DUR-928 has been shown in preclinical studies to play an important regulatory role in lipid homeostasis, inflammation, and cell survival.  Human applications may include acute organ injury, chronic metabolic diseases such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) and other liver diseases with both broad and orphan populations, and inflammatory skin conditions such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.  DURECT’s advanced oral and injectable delivery technologies are designed to enable new indications and enhanced attributes for small-molecule and biologic drugs. One late stage development program is REMOXY^® ER (oxycodone), an investigational extended release pain relief drug based on DURECT’s ORADUR^® technology, for which DURECT’s licensee Pain Therapeutics has resubmitted the NDA and for which the FDA has set a PDUFA target action date of August 7, 2018.  Another late-stage development program in this category is POSIMIR^® (SABER^®-Bupivacaine), an investigational analgesic product intended to deliver bupivacaine to provide up to 3 days of pain relief after surgery.    In addition, for the assignment of certain patent rights, DURECT may receive a milestone payment upon NDA approval and single digit sales-based earn-out payments from U.S. net sales of Indivior’s RBP-7000 investigational drug for schizophrenia, for which Indivior has submitted an NDA and for which the FDA has set a PDUFA target action date of July 28, 2018.

A central aspect of our business strategy involves advancing multiple product candidates at one time, which is enabled by leveraging our resources with those of corporate collaborators. Thus, certain of our programs are currently licensed to corporate collaborators on terms which typically call for our collaborator to fund all or a substantial portion of future development costs and then pay us milestone payments based on specific development or commercial achievements plus a royalty on product sales. At the same time, we have retained the rights to other programs, which are the basis of potential future collaborations and which over time may provide a pathway for us to develop our own commercial, sales and marketing organization.

Epigenetic Regulator Program and New Chemical Entities

DURECT’s Epigenetic Regulator Program involves a multi-year collaborative effort with the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the VCU Medical Center and the McGuire VA Medical Center. The discoveries from this program are a result of more than 20 years of lipid research by Shunlin Ren, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine at the VCU Medical Center and a recipient of multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for metabolic disease research. Epigenetic regulation does not change DNA sequences, but regulates the pattern of DNA expression and subsequent cellular functions. DUR-928 is our program’s lead product candidate. We hold the exclusive worldwide right to develop and commercialize DUR-928 and related molecules discovered in the program.

NOTE: POSIMIR^®, SABER^®, CLOUD^®, ORADUR^®, ALZET^® and LACTEL^® are trademarks of DURECT Corporation. Other trademarks referred to belong to their respective owners.

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Our major product research and development efforts for new chemical entities derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program are set forth in the following table:

During the course of this program, a number of compounds have been identified that may have therapeutic utility for various uncommon (orphan and rare) and common diseases, disorders or syndromes. The lead compound from this program (DUR-928) is an endogenous, orally available small molecule that modulates the activity of various nuclear receptors that play important regulatory roles in lipid homeostasis, inflammation and cell survival.

The biological activity of DUR-928 has been demonstrated in over 10 different animal disease models involving three animal species. Several of these disease models represent chronic metabolic disorders of hepatic lipid accumulation and dysfunction (e.g., nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) associated with diabetes) and several represent acute organ injuries (endotoxin shock, ischemic-reperfusion kidney injury, acute liver failure and stroke).

We are pursuing the development of DUR-928 through three programs for: (i) chronic metabolic disorders or liver diseases using oral administration, (ii) acute organ injury by injection or infusion, and (iii) local skin inflammatory disorders using topical application. We are also evaluating additional indications beyond these programs.

In pharmacokinetic and toxicity studies conducted in mice, hamsters, rats, rabbits, dogs and monkeys, DUR-928 has been found to be orally available, locally tolerable and safe at all doses and in all routes tested to date. These non-clinical results supported the initiation of DUR-928 into human safety/pharmacokinetics (PK)/proof-of-concept trials.

Chronic Metabolic Disease Program with Orally Administered DUR-928

Market Opportunity.    Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects approximately 30% of adults and 10% of children (about 81 million individuals) in the United States. There are many mechanisms, but only one phenotype of steatohepatitis.  Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a more severe and progressive form of NAFLD, is one of the most common chronic liver diseases worldwide, with an estimated prevalence of more than

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10% of adults in the United States, Europe, Japan and other developed countries. No drug is currently approved for NAFLD or NASH.  Moreover, alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD) and its more advanced stage, alcoholic steatohepatitis (ASH), develops in approximately 90% of individuals who drink more than 60 grams/day of alcohol, but may occur in individuals who drink less, and is a major contributor to the global burden of liver cirrhosis. Alcoholic hepatitis (AH), an acute, inflammatory form of AFLD, occurs in approximately 20% of patients with alcoholism and there are no effective therapeutics available to treat this condition. There is a growing appreciation for the pathological overlap between NASH and ASH.  In addition to these liver diseases, there are a number of orphan liver diseases for which we may seek to develop DUR-928, such as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC).

Clinical Program.    The initial Phase 1 trial of DUR-928 was a single-site, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, single-ascending-dose study that evaluated the safety, tolerability and PK of orally administered DUR-928. The 30-subject study evaluated DUR-928 in five cohorts of healthy volunteers receiving DUR-928 (n=20 on drug, 10 on placebo) at escalating doses that resulted in peak plasma concentrations greater than 100-fold higher than endogenous levels. DUR-928 was well-tolerated at all dose levels, with no serious treatment-related adverse events reported. Dose related increases in plasma concentrations were observed with peak plasma concentration at approximately 2-6 hours after dosing. We subsequently conducted a Phase 1 multiple-ascending-dose, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, oral administration trial in 20 healthy subjects (n=16 on drug, 4 on placebo).  Following multiple dosing, DUR-928 was well-tolerated at all doses, with no serious drug-related adverse events reported and no accumulation in plasma concentrations observed with repeat dosing.  We also conducted a food effect study with 8 healthy volunteers and observed no food effect on absorption.

Our first patient trial utilizing orally administered DUR-928 was an open-label, single-ascending-dose safety and PK Phase 1b trial in liver function impaired (NASH) patients and matched control subjects (MCS) (matched by age, body mass index and gender with normal liver function).  This study was conducted in Australia in two successive dose cohorts (first a low dose of 50 mg and then a high dose of 200 mg) and NASH patients were confirmed to be either cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic.  Both cohorts consisted of 10 NASH patients and 6 MCS. Data from this study was presented at the International Liver Congress™ 2017 organized by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Amsterdam on April 22, 2017.

All patients and MCS tolerated DUR-928 well.  One patient (with a prior history of arrhythmia and an ongoing viral infection) in the high dose cohort experienced a serious adverse event (shortness of breath), which occurred without unusually abnormal biochemical changes and resolved without intervention but was considered possibly treatment related by the physician due to its temporal association with dosing.  In both the low and high dose cohorts, the PK parameters were comparable between the NASH patients and the MCS.  In addition, the systemic exposure following the low and high doses of DUR-928 was dose dependent.

While this study was not designed to assess efficacy, we observed a dose dependent reduction of certain biomarkers after a single oral dose of DUR-928.   Exploratory biomarker analysis indicated that a single oral dose of DUR-928 resulted in statistically significant reductions from baseline in the levels of both full-length and cleaved cytokeratin-18 (CK-18), bilirubin, hsCRP and IL-18 in the NASH patients.  The mean decrease of full-length CK-18 (a generalized cell death marker) at the measured time point of greatest effect (12 hours after dosing) was 33% in the low dose cohort and 41% in the high dose cohort.  The mean decrease of cleaved CK-18 (a cell apoptosis marker) at the measured time point of greatest effect (12 hours after dosing) was 37% in the low dose cohort and 47% in the high dose cohort.  The mean reduction in total bilirubin (a liver function impairment marker) at the measured time point of greatest effect (12 hours after dosing) was 27% in the low dose cohort and 31% in the high dose cohort.  The mean decrease of high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP), a marker of inflammation, at the measured time point of greatest effect (24 hours after dosing) was 8% on average in the low dose cohort and 13% in the high dose cohort.   The mean decrease of IL-18, an inflammatory mediator implicated in both liver and kidney diseases, at the measured time point of greatest effect (8 hours after dosing) was 4% in the low dose cohort and 8% in the high dose cohort.

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Collectively, the reduction of these biomarkers plus results from our animal and cell culture studies suggest potential therapeutic activity of DUR-928 for patients with liver diseases.  However, additional studies are required to evaluate the safety and efficacy of DUR-928, and there is no assurance that these biomarker effects will be associated with clinically relevant benefits, or that DUR-928 will demonstrate safety or efficacy in treating liver diseases in larger controlled trials.  

We are conducting a Phase 2a trial in PSC with orally administered DUR-928.  The Phase 2a trial is a randomized, open label study with two cohorts (a low dose cohort of 10 mg and a high dose cohort of 50 mg), in which patients (n = 20 per cohort) will receive oral dosing of DUR-928 for 4-weeks with follow-up for an additional four-weeks. The objectives of this study include safety, PK and pharmacodynamic (PD) markers, including the percent change from baseline of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and other biomarkers.   As an open label study, we expect to generate data during the course of 2018.  PSC is a chronic liver disease characterized by a progression of cholestasis (decrease in bile flow) with inflammation and fibrosis of bile ducts.  Over time, PSC leads to liver failure, infections and tumors of the bile duct or liver, and ultimately may require a liver transplant.  There is no approved treatment for PSC at this time.  We have received orphan drug designation for DUR-928 to treat patients with PSC.  We believe that data generated from this trial will be relevant to other chronic inflammatory, fibrotic and cholestatic liver conditions.

Acute Organ Injury Program with Injectable DUR-928

Market Opportunity.    Acute organ injury is another area of major unmet medical need for which effective pharmaceutical treatment is often lacking. Acute kidney injury (AKI) alone, for example, affects approximately 2.8 million patients per year in the United States and is associated with increased mortality, prolonged hospital stays, and progression to chronic kidney disease. In addition, AKI is a major cause of mortality in acute liver injury. Alcoholic hepatitis is a syndrome characterized by progressive inflammatory liver injury associated with long-term heavy intake of alcohol, and involves a spectrum that ranges from mild injury to severe, life threatening injury.  The prevalence of alcoholic hepatitis has not been accurately determined, but it is believed to occur in 10-35% of heavy drinkers.  There were over 320,000 hospitalizations related to alcoholic hepatitis in 2010, and the hospitalization costs amounted to nearly $50,000 per patient.  There are various forms of acute organ injury affecting the liver, the kidney or multiple organs for which we may seek to develop DUR-928.

Clinical Program.    The initial Phase 1 trial with injectable administration was a single-site, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, single-ascending-dose study that evaluated the safety, tolerability and PK of intramuscular (IM) injected DUR-928. The 24-subject study (16 healthy volunteers on the drug and 8 on placebo) of four escalating dose levels resulted in dose proportionality of systemic exposure. DUR-928 was well-tolerated at all dose levels, with no serious treatment-related adverse events reported. We also conducted a multiple-dose study involving 10 healthy volunteers, in which participants received IM-injected DUR-928 for 5 consecutive days (8 subjects on the drug, 2 on placebo) with the next to highest dose in the single dose study. No serious treatment related adverse events were reported, no subjects withdrew from the study, no accumulation in plasma concentrations were observed with repeat dosing, and the pain scores and injection site reactions were minimal. We also conducted a single-ascending-dose intravenous infusion (IV) study with 16 healthy volunteers and observed no treatment related serious adverse events. The systemic exposure following IV infusion was dose proportional.

Our second Phase 1b study with injected DUR-928, also conducted in Australia, was an open-label, single-ascending-dose study in patients with impaired kidney function (stage 3 and 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD)) and matched control subjects (matched by age, body mass and gender with normal kidney function).  This study was conducted in two successive cohorts (first a low dose of 30 mg and then a high dose of 120 mg) evaluating safety and PK of single-dose intramuscular injected DUR-928. The low dose cohort consisted of 6 patients with chronic kidney disease and 3 matched control subjects; the high dose cohort consisted of 5 patients with chronic kidney disease and 3 matched control subjects.  In this trial, DUR-928 was well tolerated among all subjects and the PK parameters between the kidney function impaired patients and the matched control subjects were comparable. Although the number of subjects involved was small, we did observe decreases in bilirubin and CK-18 when those levels were meaningfully elevated pre-treatment.

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We have been working with our clinical advisors to design several Phase 2a studies for various acute organ injuries.   We submitted an initial IND in late December 2016 for a proposed Phase 2a liver study.  The FDA requested certain drug-drug interaction data and made suggestions for the proposed protocol.  In response, we completed Phase 1 drug-drug interaction studies, which demonstrated that neither orally administered nor intravenously injected DUR-928 had an effect on the safety and PK of midazolam, a drug for detecting potential drug-drug interactions via the enzyme CYP3A4.  This enzyme is commonly associated with clinically relevant drug-drug interactions.  

We are conducting a Phase 2a trial in alcoholic hepatitis (AH) with DUR-928.  The Phase 2a trial is an open label, dose escalation study conducted in two parts.  Part A will include patients with moderate AH (as determined by MELD scores) and Part B will include patients with severe AH.  The study will be conducted using three dose levels (30 mg, 90 mg and 150 mg) in Part A, with sequential dose escalation following review of safety and PK results of the prior dose level.  Patients will receive DUR-928 by intravenous infusion, and the dose may be adjusted in Part B based on the findings from Part A.  Patients will be enrolled at multiple clinical sites in the United States and the target number of participants to complete the study is 24-36.  The objectives of this study include safety, PK and PD signals, as determined by improvement in liver biochemistry, MELD and Lille scores and other biomarkers.   As an open label study, we expect to generate data during the course of 2018.  

Skin Inflammatory Disorder Program with Topical DUR-928

Market opportunity.  Skin inflammatory disorders, such as psoriasis or atopic dermatitis, affect approximately 7.5 million and 32 million Americans, respectively.  Most currently available topical treatments, typically as first line therapy, either slow down excessive skin cell proliferation or reduce inflammation.  Steroids are the most commonly used topical anti-inflammatory agents because they reduce the swelling and redness of lesions.  

Clinical program.  We have conducted an exploratory proof-of-concept (POC) Phase 1b trial in psoriasis patients (9 evaluable patients) in Australia.  The decision to proceed with clinical testing was based on the anti-inflammatory activities of DUR-928, as well as the results of a psoriasis study with DUR-928 in mice. The double-blinded and placebo-controlled Phase 1b trial was conducted using a micro-plaque assay with intralesional injections of DUR-928.    We feel that the initial results were encouraging and warrant further investigation.  As a result, we have developed and selected lead topical formulations of DUR-928 and have recently completed good laboratory practice (GLP) skin irritation / sensitization studies in two species.  We have had pre-IND interactions with the FDA and are incorporating FDA’s comments in our upcoming IND while we conduct a mini-pig skin irritation study to be included in our IND for a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study with topically applied DUR-928. We expect to initiate this Phase 2 study in the third quarter of 2018.

Drug Delivery Programs and Pharmaceutical Systems

We are developing pharmaceutical systems that will deliver the right drug to the right place, in the right amount and at the right time to treat chronic and episodic diseases and conditions. Our pharmaceutical systems enable optimized therapy for a given disease or patient population by controlling the rate and duration of drug administration. In addition, if advantageous for the therapy, our pharmaceutical systems can target the delivery of the drug to its intended site of action.

Our pharmaceutical systems are suitable for providing long-term drug therapy because they store highly concentrated, stabilized drugs in a small volume and can protect the drug from degradation by the body. This, in combination with our ability to continuously deliver precise and accurate doses of a drug, allows us to extend the therapeutic value of a wide variety of drugs, including those which would otherwise be ineffective, too unstable, too potent or cause adverse side effects. In some cases, delivering the drug directly to the intended site of action can improve efficacy while minimizing unwanted side effects elsewhere in the body, which often limit the long-term use of many drugs. Our pharmaceutical systems can thus provide better therapy for chronic diseases or conditions, or for certain acute conditions where longer drug dosing is required or advantageous, by replacing multiple injection therapy or oral dosing, improving drug efficacy, reducing side effects and ensuring dosing compliance. Our pharmaceutical systems can improve patients’ quality of life by eliminating more repetitive treatments, reducing dependence on caregivers and allowing patients to lead more independent lives.

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We currently have several major active drug delivery technology platforms:

The SABER and CLOUD Bioerodible Injectable Depot Systems

Our bioerodible injectable depot systems include our SABER and CLOUD platform technologies. SABER uses a high viscosity base component, such as sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB), to provide controlled release of a drug. When the high viscosity SAIB is formulated with drug, biocompatible excipients and other additives, the resulting formulation is easily injectable with standard syringes and needles. After injection of a SABER formulation, the excipients diffuse away, leaving a viscous depot which provides controlled sustained release of drug. CLOUD is a class of bioerodible injectable depot technology which generally does not contain SAIB but includes various other release rate modifying excipients and/or bioerodible polymers to achieve the delivery of drugs for periods of days to months from a single injection. We are researching and developing a variety of controlled-release products based on the SABER and CLOUD technologies. Based on research and development work to date, our bioerodible injectable depot technologies have shown the following advantages:

The SABER technology is the basis of POSIMIR, for which our NDA received a Complete Response Letter in February 2014 and for which we conducted a Phase 3 trial designed to generate additional clinical data with which to address the issues raised in the Complete Response Letter. The SABER technology is also utilized in our ophthalmic program with Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Santen), as well as multiple feasibility programs. In our clinical studies thus far, our bioerodible injectable depot formulations have been observed to be safe and well-tolerated, and no significant side effects or adverse events have been reported.

The SABER technology is also the basis for SucroMate™ Equine, an injectable animal health drug utilizing our SABER technology to deliver the peptide deslorelin. This is the first FDA approved SABER injectable product and it was launched in 2011 by our collaborator, CreoSalus, Inc.

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The ORADUR Sustained Release Gel Cap Technology

We believe that our ORADUR sustained release technology can transform short-acting oral capsule dosage forms into sustained release oral products. Products based on our ORADUR technology can take the form of an easy to swallow gelatin capsule that uses a high-viscosity base component such as sucrose acetate isobutyrate (SAIB) to provide controlled release of active ingredients for a period of 12 to 24 hours of drug delivery. Oral dosage forms based on the ORADUR gel-cap may also have the added benefit of being less prone to abuse (e.g., by crushing and then snorting, smoking, injecting or extracting by mixing with alcohol or water) than other controlled release dosage forms on the market today. These properties have the potential to make ORADUR-based products an attractive option for pharmaceutical companies that seek to develop abuse deterrent oral products.

The ORADUR technology is the basis of REMOXY ER, a unique long-acting oral formulation of the opioid oxycodone designed to discourage common methods of opioid misuse and abuse, and for which Pain Therapeutics, Inc. (Pain Therapeutics) received a Complete Response Letter most recently in September 2016. The ORADUR technology has also been applied to develop abuse-deterrent formulations of other opioids, including hydromorphone, hydrocodone and oxymorphone, although these programs are not currently under active development. We also have an ORADUR-ADHD program for which we and Orient Pharma Co., Ltd. (Orient Pharma) have selected a lead formulation containing the active pharmaceutical ingredient methylphenidate. This formulation was selected based on its potential for rapid onset of action, long duration for once-a-day dosing and target pharmacokinetic profile as demonstrated in a Phase 1 trial. Orient Pharma achieved positive results from a Phase 3 trial in Taiwan in 2017 and is pursuing a new drug application with the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration.

Major Drug Delivery Programs

POSIMIR (SABER-Bupivacaine)

Market Opportunity.    According to data published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 72 million ambulatory and inpatient surgical procedures performed annually in the U.S. Insufficient postoperative pain control remains a significant problem, with studies indicating that roughly 65% of patients experience moderate-to-extreme pain after surgery. The current standard of care for post-surgical pain includes oral opiate and non-opiate analgesics and muscle relaxants. While systemic opioids can effectively control post-surgical pain, they commonly cause side effects including drowsiness, constipation, nausea and vomiting, and cognitive impairment. Effective pain management can be compromised if patients fail to adhere to recommended dosing regimens because they are suffering from these side effects. Post-surgical pain also can be treated effectively with local anesthetics; however, their usefulness often is limited by their short duration of action.

Development Strategy.    We are developing POSIMIR, an extended-release formulation of bupivacaine, using our SABER delivery system for the treatment of post-surgical pain. Bupivacaine is an off-patent pharmaceutical agent. The physician would administer POSIMIR at the time of surgery to the surgical site. This formulation is designed to provide extended analgesia from a single dose. We believe that by delivering effective amounts of a potent analgesic to the location from which the pain originates, improved pain control can be achieved with minimal exposure to the remainder of the body and reduced need for systemic analgesics, thus minimizing systemic side effects. POSIMIR is intended to provide local analgesia for up to 3 days, which we believe generally coincides with the time period of greatest need for post-surgical pain control in most patients.

In May 2017, we signed a development and commercialization agreement with Sandoz AG (Sandoz), a division of Novartis, to develop and market POSIMIR in the United States.  

Clinical Program.    Our POSIMIR clinical development program has been devised to establish the safety and efficacy of POSIMIR for the treatment of post-surgical pain for 3 days. Toward that end, 16 clinical studies have been completed, of which 14 clinical studies were with the final formulation of POSIMIR in either blinded, randomized controlled trials or open-label trials. The initial 15 trials were included in the Integrated Summary of Safety (ISS) which was included in the POSIMIR NDA. Seven randomized, controlled, parallel design clinical trials of POSIMIR using the instillation method of administration and dose proposed for marketing were included in the Integrated Summary of Efficacy (ISE) which was included in the NDA. Seven different surgical procedures have been investigated, including inguinal hernia repair, shoulder surgery (primarily subacromial decompression),

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appendectomy, abdominal hysterectomy, open laparotomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and laparoscopic colectomy. The incision lengths treated ranged from a few centimeters for laparoscopic portals, to open laparotomy incisions of up to 35 cm. The seriousness of the surgery ranged from day surgery hernia repair in relatively healthy patients to major abdominal surgery for colon cancer in elderly patients with substantial co-morbidity who were often hospitalized for a week or more. The safety experience from this variety of procedures and patients was designed to allow a more confident extrapolation of the safety and efficacy data to a broad general surgical population.

Safety

As bupivacaine is a well-known drug with an extensive understanding of its risks and benefits, the safety database in the Integrated Summary of Safety (ISS) is not as large as required for a new chemical entity. In the POSIMIR NDA, a total of 1,075 patients were included in the ISS database, 951 of whom had been exposed to POSIMIR or SABER-Placebo in volumes ranging from 2.5 to 10 mL. A total of 683 patients had been exposed to POSIMIR with the dose of bupivacaine ranging from 330 to 990 mg. In addition, a total of 124 patients had been treated with bupivacaine HCl in control groups and 268 patients received SABER-Placebo in control groups.

Overall, the POSIMIR patient groups showed a similar systemic safety profile as the patient groups treated with SABER-Placebo and bupivacaine HCl. Local site reactions were observed more frequently in the POSIMIR and SABER-Placebo groups than in the active comparator groups, most frequently in abdominal surgeries; most of these observations were discolorations (e.g., surgical bruising), the majority of which resolved without treatment during the observation period. There was little difference in the incidence of severe or serious adverse events between the POSIMIR, SABER-Placebo and bupivacaine HCl treatment groups. Most of the serious adverse events seen in these trials appear to be due to complications of surgery, anesthesia, analgesics, or co-morbidity and not POSIMIR-related. The clinical history for serious adverse events has been reviewed and no evidence of bupivacaine toxicity was apparent. The adverse event data was analyzed in a variety of ways to detect any evidence of bupivacaine central nervous system or cardiac toxicity or other unexpected effects. No patients treated with POSIMIR had an instance of a severe central nervous system or cardiac adverse event traditionally associated with bupivacaine toxicity.

Efficacy

In the NDA, we presented the results from two efficacy trials that we positioned as pivotal (inguinal hernia repair and shoulder surgery, primarily subacromial decompression) and an Integrated Summary of Efficacy (ISE) based on 7 randomized, controlled, parallel design surgical trials of POSIMIR using the administration technique and 5 mL (660 mg) dose proposed for marketing.

Hernia pivotal efficacy trial

The hernia pivotal efficacy clinical trial was designed to evaluate the tolerability, activity, dose response and pharmacokinetics of POSIMIR in patients undergoing open inguinal hernia repair. The trial was conducted in Australia and New Zealand as a multi-center, randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study in 122 patients. Study patients were randomized into three treatment groups: patients that were treated with POSIMIR 2.5 mL (n=43), POSIMIR 5 mL (n=47) and placebo (n=32). The co-primary efficacy endpoints for the study were Mean Pain Intensity on Movement area under the curve (AUC), a measure of pain over a period of 1-72 hours post-surgery, and the proportion of patients requiring supplemental opioid analgesic medication during the study (defined as 0-15 days).

In relation to the co-primary endpoint of pain reduction as measured by Mean Pain Intensity on Movement AUC 1-72 hours post-surgery, the patient group treated with POSIMIR 5 mL reported thirty-one percent (31%) less pain versus placebo, and the result was statistically significant (p=0.0031). Fifty-three percent (53%) of the study patients in the POSIMIR 5 mL group took supplemental opioid analgesic medications versus seventy-two percent (72%) of the placebo patients (p=0.0909). Although this positive trend for this co-primary endpoint in favor of the POSIMIR 5 mL group was not statistically significant, both secondary endpoints measuring opioid analgesic medication consumption were met at a statistically significant level. During the periods of 1-24 hours, 24-48 hours and 48-72 hours after surgery, placebo patients consumed approximately 3.5 (p=0.0009), 2.9 (p=0.0190) and 3.6 (p=0.0172) times more supplemental opioid analgesic medications (mean total daily consumption of opioid

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analgesic medication in morphine equivalents), respectively, than the POSIMIR 5 mL treatment group. The median decrease in supplemental opioid analgesics taken over the first three days after surgery was 80% (p=0.0085) for the POSIMIR 5 mL group as compared to the placebo group.

Shoulder pivotal efficacy trial

The shoulder pivotal efficacy trial was a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, active- and placebo-controlled, parallel-group, dose-response trial conducted at 9 investigational centers in Europe. Nycomed, our collaborator at the time, was responsible for the conduct of the clinical trial. In this study, 107 patients were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups prior to undergoing elective arthroscopic shoulder surgery: POSIMIR 5 mL (n=53), SABER-Placebo (n=25) or bupivacaine HCl solution (n=29). All patients were given a background pain treatment consisting of a daily dose of two or four grams (depending on the patient’s weight) of paracetamol (acetaminophen). In addition, each patient was provided supplemental opioid rescue medication, if needed. With respect to efficacy, the primary endpoints of the study were to demonstrate: (1) an improvement in terms of pain intensity on movement area under the curve (AUC) during the period 1–72 hours post-surgery, and (2) a decrease in the total use of opioid rescue analgesia 0–72 hours post-surgery.

Results from this study demonstrate that the POSIMIR group experienced a statistically significant reduction in pain intensity of approximately 20% (p=0.012) versus SABER-Placebo. Applying the appropriate statistical test given the data distribution, the POSIMIR group showed a statistically significant reduction of approximately 67% (p=0.013) in median opioid use in favor of POSIMIR. No statistical differences were found when POSIMIR was compared to bupivacaine HCl.

Phase 3 trial in abdominal surgical procedures

We also conducted a Phase 3 U.S. and international, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial evaluating the safety, efficacy, effectiveness, and pharmacokinetics of POSIMIR in 305 patients undergoing a variety of general abdominal surgical procedures. The trial included the following three cohorts:

Cohort 1: An active comparator cohort in which patients were randomized to receive either POSIMIR 5 mL or commercially available Bupivacaine HCl solution after laparotomy.

Cohort 2: An active comparator cohort in which patients were randomized to receive either POSIMIR 5 mL or commercially available Bupivacaine HCl solution after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Cohort 3: A double blind, placebo controlled cohort in which patients were randomized to receive either POSIMIR 5 mL or SABER-Placebo after laparoscopically-assisted colectomy.

Efficacy evaluation in the Phase 3 trial encompassed a number of parameters. The two co-primary efficacy endpoints for Cohort 3 were mean pain intensity on movement (normalized) Area Under the Curve (AUC) during the period 0-72 hours post-dose and mean total morphine equivalent opioid dose for supplemental analgesia during the period 0-72 hours post-dose. The purpose of Cohorts 1 and 2 was to give us additional experience with the use of POSIMIR in a broader group of surgeries and patients.

Cohort 3. With respect to the co-primary efficacy endpoint of pain reduction as measured by mean pain intensity on movement (normalized) Area Under the Curve (AUC) during the period 0-72 hours post-dose, the patient group treated with POSIMIR reported a mean pain reduction in pain scores of approximately 7%, although this was not statistically significant (p=0.1466). The statistical analysis plan included pain on movement as recorded at scheduled times through an electronic diary plus pain scores reported whenever supplemental opioids were administered with such scores attributed as if they were pain on movement. In the prespecified sensitivity analysis (which includes only scheduled pain assessment on movement scores as collected on the electronic diary), the patient group treated with POSIMIR reported approximately 10% less pain versus placebo (p=0.0410). In relation to the co-primary efficacy endpoint of median total morphine-equivalent opioid dose for supplemental analgesia during the period 0-72 hours post-dose, the patient group treated with POSIMIR reported approximately 16% less opioids consumed versus the placebo group, although this was not statistically significant (p=0.5897).

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Cohorts 1 and 2. Cohorts 1 and 2 were prespecified to be pooled due to their small sample size. For Cohorts 1 and 2 (pooled), the mean reduction in pain on movement was approximately 20% and statistically significant (p=0.0111) for the POSIMIR group compared to the patient group treated with bupivacaine HCl. With respect to the median total morphine-equivalent opioid dose for supplemental analgesia during the period 0-72 hours post-dose for Cohorts 1 and 2 (pooled), the patient group treated with POSIMIR reported approximately 18% less opioids consumed compared to the bupivacaine HCl group, although this was not statistically significant (p=0.5455).

Integrated Summary of Efficacy

The seven controlled trials in the ISE can be separated into two different surgical types, soft tissue and orthopedic. The four soft tissue trials involved incisions or laparoscopic portals either in the abdomen or in the inguinal area for hernia repair. In these surgeries, the pain producing tissue was primarily soft tissue such as viscera, fascia, muscle, or skin. However, in the three orthopedic surgeries involving shoulder surgery, a major pain producing tissue is bone that has been resected during the procedure. Given that the responsiveness to treatment of these different surgical types may be different, a pooled analysis was conducted separately by tissue type.

In the soft tissue pooled analysis group comprised of 410 patients, 253 were treated with POSIMIR and 157 were treated with SABER-Placebo. The mean pain intensity was lower during the period 0-72 hours post-dose in the POSIMIR group than in the SABER-Placebo group and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.0099). The median total morphine-equivalent dose during the period 0-72 hours post-dose was lower in the POSIMIR group than in the SABER-Placebo group, however the difference was not statistically significant.

In the orthopedic pooled analysis group comprised of 187 patients, 114 were treated with POSIMIR and 73 were treated with SABER-Placebo. The mean pain intensity during the period 0-72 hours post-dose was lower in the POSIMIR group than in the SABER-Placebo group and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.0205). The median total morphine-equivalent dose during the period 0-72 hours post-dose was lower in the POSIMIR group than in the SABER-Placebo group and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.0025).

Current Status.    In April 2013, we submitted an NDA as a 505(b)(2) application, which relies in part on the FDA’s findings of safety and effectiveness of a reference drug. In February 2014, we received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA. Based on the Complete Response Letter and subsequent communications with the FDA, we conducted a new POSIMIR Phase 3 clinical trial (the PERSIST trial) consisting of patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) surgery to further evaluate the benefits and risks of POSIMIR. We began recruiting patients for this trial in November 2015 comparing POSIMIR to placebo. Based on advice from the FDA received subsequent to the start of the trial, in April 2016 we decided to amend the PERSIST trial. Starting in August 2016, we began implementing Part 2 of the PERSIST trial to evaluate POSIMIR against standard bupivacaine HCl rather than placebo as we had been doing initially in the study. Additionally, we switched the primary efficacy endpoint (pain reduction on movement) from 0-72 hours after surgery to 0-48 hours after surgery. Assessing pain reduction on movement from 0-72 hours became the key secondary efficacy endpoint and other efficacy endpoints, including 72-hour opioid use, remained the same.  In June 2017, we enrolled 296 patients in Part 2 of the PERSIST trial; we had enrolled 92 patients in Part 1 of the PERSIST trial.  In October 2017, we reported that the PERSIST trial did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint of reduction in pain on movement over the first 48 hours after surgery as compared to standard bupivacaine HCl.   While results trended in favor of POSIMIR versus the comparator, they did not achieve statistical significance. We and Sandoz have been working to understand the trial results more fully and to consider potential next steps with the program.

REMOXY ER (ORADUR-Oxycodone)

Market Opportunity.    Chronic pain is usually the result of an ongoing condition or significant problem associated with chronic diseases, including cancer, various neurological and skeletal disorders and other ailments such as severe arthritis or a debilitating back injury. As the condition gets worse, the pain often gets worse. Also, long-lasting pain can affect the nervous system to the point where pain persists even if the condition that originally caused the pain is stabilized or improved. This is one reason patients often need stronger pain medication even if their underlying condition has been treated. Chronic pain affects as many as 100 million Americans annually. OxyContin^®, a brand name extended-release oral oxycodone-based painkiller, plus other extended release oxycodone-based painkillers, accounted for approximately $2.6 billion in U.S. sales in 2016.

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Development Strategy.    REMOXY ER is an oral, long-acting oxycodone gelatin capsule under development with Pain Therapeutics to which we have licensed exclusive, worldwide, development and commercialization rights under a development and license agreement entered into in December 2002.

REMOXY ER is formulated with our ORADUR technology and is designed to discourage common methods of opioid misuse. Under the agreement with Pain Therapeutics, subject to and upon the achievement of predetermined development and regulatory milestones, we are entitled to receive milestone payments of up to $3.0 million in the aggregate for REMOXY ER. We also receive reimbursement for our research and development efforts on REMOXY ER, and a manufacturing profit on our supply of key excipients for use in REMOXY ER. In addition, if commercialized, we will receive royalties for REMOXY ER of between 6.0% to 11.5% of net sales depending on sales volumes.

Clinical Program.    Pain Therapeutics submitted an NDA for REMOXY ER to the FDA in June 2008, and in November 2008 the FDA accepted the NDA and granted priority review. In December 2008, Pain Therapeutics received a Complete Response Letter for its NDA for REMOXY ER in which the FDA determined that the NDA was not approved. According to Pain Therapeutics, the FDA indicated that additional non-clinical data would be required to support the approval of REMOXY ER, but the FDA had not requested or recommended additional clinical efficacy studies prior to approval. King Pharmaceuticals (King), which had acquired development and commercialization rights for REMOXY ER from Pain Therapeutics, and which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer, resubmitted the NDA in December of 2010. On June 23, 2011, a Complete Response Letter from the FDA was received by Pfizer. The FDA’s June 2011 Complete Response Letter raised concerns related to, among other matters, the Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls section of the NDA for REMOXY ER. Pfizer undertook efforts to resolve these issues. In October 2013, Pfizer stated that, having achieved technical milestones related to manufacturing, they would continue the development program for REMOXY ER. Following guidance received from the FDA earlier in 2013, Pfizer announced that they were proceeding with the additional clinical studies and other actions required to address the Complete Response Letter. Pfizer stated that these new clinical studies would include, in part, a pivotal bioequivalence study with the modified REMOXY ER formulation to bridge to the clinical data related to the original REMOXY ER formulation, and an abuse-potential study with the modified formulation. In October 2014, Pfizer notified Pain Therapeutics that Pfizer had decided to discontinue development of REMOXY ER, and that Pfizer would return all rights, including responsibility for regulatory activities, to Pain Therapeutics and that Pfizer would continue ongoing activities under the agreement until the scheduled termination date in April 2015. In April 2015, Pain Therapeutics stated that it had resumed responsibility for REMOXY ER under the terms of a letter agreement with Pfizer. In March 2016, Pain Therapeutics resubmitted the NDA for REMOXY ER to the FDA, and in September 2016, Pain Therapeutics received a Complete Response Letter. Based on its review, the FDA has determined that the NDA cannot be approved in its present form and specifies additional actions and data that are needed for drug approval. We understand from its public disclosures that Pain Therapeutics had a meeting with the FDA in February 2017 to discuss the regulatory path forward for REMOXY ER.  In March 2017, Pain Therapeutics announced that it planned to resubmit the REMOXY ER NDA after completing two additional studies with REMOXY ER based on guidance following the recent meeting with the FDA.  The two studies are a clinical abuse potential study via the intranasal route of abuse and a non-clinical abuse potential study using household solvents.  In December 2017, Pain Therapeutics announced that they had successfully concluded a pre-NDA guidance meeting with the FDA.  According to Pain Therapeutics, the purpose of a pre-NDA meeting is to acquaint FDA reviewers with the data to be submitted in the NDA, to uncover any major unresolved problems, including whether the NDA resubmission constitutes a complete response to the 2016 Complete Response Letter, and to discuss the best approach to the presentation and formatting of data in the NDA.   In January 2018, Pain Therapeutics announced positive results from a human abuse potential study using nasal administration of REMOXY ER and that they had completed all studies necessary to resubmit the REMOXY ER NDA to the FDA.  On February 13, 2018, Pain Therapeutics stated that the REMOXY ER NDA had been resubmitted. On March 1, 2018, Pain Therapeutics announced that the FDA has determined that the NDA is sufficiently complete to permit a substantive review and the FDA has set a PDUFA target action date of August 7, 2018.  Pain Therapeutics also stated that they believe the FDA will hold an open advisory committee meeting to discuss REMOXY ER, although a date has not yet been determined.    

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ORADUR-ADHD Program

Market Opportunity.    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral condition that is estimated to affect over 5 million (approximately 9%) of U.S. children ages 3-17, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The principal characteristics of ADHD are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The condition presents itself in childhood and can be life long as a significant number of children with ADHD continue to present symptoms as adults. Over 50% of children with ADHD are estimated to being treated by medication, with stimulants such as amphetamine or methylphenidate as first-line treatments. U.S. sales of ADHD treatments were approximately $10.4 billion in 2016. The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use & Health estimates that 1.1 million Americans over the age of 12 abuse stimulants for euphoric highs and increased performance or wakefulness.

Development Strategy.    We are developing a drug candidate (ORADUR- Methylphenidate ER) based on our ORADUR Technology for the treatment of ADHD. This drug candidate is intended to provide once-a-day dosing with added tamper resistant characteristics to address common methods of abuse and misuse of these types of drugs. In August 2009, we entered into a development and license agreement with Orient Pharma, a diversified multinational pharmaceutical, healthcare and consumer products company with headquarters in Taiwan, under which we granted to Orient Pharma development and commercialization rights in certain defined Asian and South Pacific countries to ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER. We retain rights to North America, Europe, Japan and all other countries not specifically licensed to Orient Pharma. Under our agreement with Orient Pharma, the parties will collaborate to perform a clinical development program through a Phase 2 study intended to produce a data package suitable for further development of the drug candidate by us as well as Orient Pharma in their respective territories. We will be responsible for formulation and study design of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical program which Orient Pharma has agreed to fund and execute. Orient Pharma would be responsible for all remaining development and commercialization activities for ORADUR- Methylphenidate ER in the licensed territory. If commercialized, we will be entitled to receive a royalty on sales of ORADUR- Methylphenidate ER by Orient Pharma. Orient Pharma has committed to supply a portion of our commercial requirements in all territories other than the United States for ORADUR- Methylphenidate ER. In 2013, we and Orient Pharma selected a lead formulation based on its potential for rapid onset of action, long duration for once-a-day dosing and target pharmacokinetic profile as demonstrated in a Phase 1 trial. In addition, this product candidate is expected to utilize a small capsule size relative to the leading existing long-acting products on the market.

Orient Pharma conducted a Phase 3, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-way cross-over study designed to observe the efficacy and safety of ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER in children and adolescents with ADHD between the ages of 6 and 18 years.  The study was conducted in Taiwan and enrolled 110 subjects, of which 99 evaluable subjects completed the study.  The primary efficacy measure in this study was to demonstrate the superiority of ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER over placebo using the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham-IV (SNAP-IV) teacher form score.  The SNAP-IV rating scale contains 26 questions, classified as three components of ADHD symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity and oppositional defiant disorder).  For the primary efficacy endpoint, ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER was superior to placebo in a statistically significant manner (p=0.0044 for the intent to treat population and p=0.0032 for the per protocol population).  There were no serious adverse events in this pivotal study. Orient Pharma’s analysis indicates that the incidence of adverse events was generally consistent with other ADHD products.

We understand that Orient Pharma is pursuing a New Drug Application with the Taiwan FDA for ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER.   DURECT is seeking potential development and commercialization partners for ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER for major markets not licensed to Orient Pharma.

Relday

In July 2011, we entered into a development and license agreement with Zogenix, Inc., (Zogenix) for the purpose of developing and commercializing Relday, a proprietary, long-acting injectable formulation of risperidone using our SABER-controlled release formulation technology potentially in combination with Zogenix’s DosePro^® needle-free, subcutaneous drug delivery system. Risperidone is one of the most widely prescribed medications used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder in adults and teenagers 13 years of age and older. Under the agreement, we granted Zogenix worldwide development and commercialization rights to Relday.

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In January 2013, Zogenix reported positive single-dose pharmacokinetic (PK) results from a Phase 1 clinical trial of Relday. According to Zogenix, adverse events in the Phase 1 trial in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were generally mild to moderate and consistent with other risperidone products. The Phase 1 clinical trial for Relday was conducted as a single-center, open-label, safety and PK trial of 30 patients with chronic, stable schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Per Zogenix, based on the favorable safety and PK profile demonstrated with the 25 mg and 50 mg once-monthly doses tested in the Phase 1 trial, Zogenix extended the study to include a 100 mg dose of the same formulation. In May 2013, Zogenix announced positive results with the 100 mg arm, demonstrating dose proportionality across the full dose range that would be anticipated to be used in clinical practice. In March 2015, Zogenix commenced a Phase 1b multi-dose parallel clinical trial, enrolling 60 subjects, for which Zogenix announced positive top line results in September 2015. According to Zogenix, the results for Relday demonstrated that risperidone plasma concentrations in the therapeutic range were achieved on the first day of dosing, reached steady state levels following the second dose and consistently maintained therapeutic levels throughout the four-month period. Also according to Zogenix, Relday was generally safe and well-tolerated, with results consistent with the profile of risperidone and the previous Phase 1 single-dose clinical trial.

In August 2017, we and Zogenix terminated the Zogenix Agreement.  Under the mutual termination agreement, Zogenix’s development and commercialization rights are returned to us, and Zogenix will transfer to us all regulatory filings and development information related to Relday.

Depot Injectable Programs

In addition to biologic drugs, many traditional small molecule drugs have to be given by frequent injections, which is costly, inconvenient and may result in either unwanted side effects or suboptimal efficacy. We have active programs underway to improve our depot injectable systems and to apply those systems to various drugs and drug candidates, and have entered into a number of feasibility studies with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to test their products in our systems. The Relday program with Zogenix and the ophthalmic program with Santen are two projects which started as depot injectable feasibility projects and then matured into development and license agreements.

Research Programs in other Therapeutic Categories

We and our corporate collaborators also have underway a number of research programs covering medical diseases and conditions other than pain. Such programs include various diseases and disorders of the central nervous system, cardiovascular disease, ophthalmic conditions and metabolic disorders. In conducting our research programs and determining which particular efforts to prioritize for formal development, we employ a rigorous opportunity assessment process that takes into account the unmet medical need, commercial opportunity, technical feasibility, clinical viability, intellectual property considerations, and the development path including costs to achieve various critical milestones.

RBP-7000

In September 2017, we entered into an agreement with Indivior, under which we assigned to Indivior certain patents that may provide further intellectual property protection for RBP-7000, Indivior’s investigational once-monthly injectable risperidone product for the treatment of schizophrenia.  In consideration for such assignment, Indivior has made an upfront non-refundable payment to DURECT of $12.5 million, and has also agreed to make an additional $5 million payment to DURECT contingent upon FDA approval of RBP-7000, as well as quarterly earn-out payments that are based on a single digit percentage of U.S. net sales for certain products covered by the assigned patent rights, including RBP-7000.   In October 2017, Indivior disclosed that it submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on September 28, 2017 to seek marketing approval for RBP-7000.  Indivior has stated that this NDA submission includes the results from a pivotal Phase 3 study assessing the efficacy and safety of RBP-7000 and an open-label, long-terms safety study.  Indivior noted that in the pivotal randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, RBP-7000 demonstrated statistically significant clinical improvement compared to placebo based on changes in mean Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total and Clinical Global Impression-Severity of Illness (CGI-S) scores at 8 weeks.  In December 2017, Indivior announced that the FDA had accepted the NDA for RBP-7000 and that the FDA had set a PDUFA (Prescription Drug User Fee Act) target action date of July 28, 2018.

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DURECT Strategy

Our objective is to develop multiple pharmaceutical products that address significant unmet medical needs and improve patients’ quality of life. To achieve this objective, our strategy includes the following key elements:

Apply our Drug Development Expertise to New Chemical Entities Derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program.    We have assembled a core team of employees with considerable experience in drug development, and it is our intent to leverage their capabilities by developing pharmaceuticals derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program. We believe that these new chemical entities may have utility for several metabolic diseases such as NAFLD, NASH, PSC and other liver conditions, in acute organ injuries such as AKI and AH, in various orphan diseases, and in inflammatory skin conditions such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. We believe that these product candidates may be of interest to larger pharmaceutical companies and that it may be possible to license the rights to certain products, formulations, indications or territories from this program while retaining the rights to other product candidates, formulations, indications or territories for either our own development and commercialization or for licensing at a later stage of development.

Focus on Certain Acute Indications, Chronic Debilitating Medical Conditions and Certain Local Pain Conditions.    Many of the diseases and disorders that present great challenges to medicine include pain management, CNS disorders, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, acute organ injury, ophthalmic conditions and other chronic diseases. In addition, we have identified certain local and acute pain and other medical conditions that we believe can be addressed by improved therapeutics. Our current efforts focus on using our versatile drug delivery platform technologies to develop products that address these medical conditions and on exploiting our Epigenetic Regulator Program through which we have identified new chemical entities that may have utility in conditions such as acute organ injuries and chronic metabolic/lipid disorders.

Diversify Risk by Pursuing Multiple Programs in Development.    In order to reduce the risks inherent in pharmaceutical product development, we have diversified our product pipeline such that, between our own programs and those where we have collaborated, we presently have two programs for which New Drug Applications have been filed and Complete Response Letters have been received, and several other programs in various stages of development. We believe that having multiple programs in development helps mitigate the negative consequences to us of any setbacks or delays in any one of our programs.

Enable Product Development Through Strategic Agreements.    We believe that entering into selective strategic collaborations and other arrangements with respect to our product development programs and technology can enhance the success of our product development and commercialization, the value of our intellectual property portfolio, mitigate our risk and enable us to better manage our operating costs. Additionally, such collaborations and arrangements enable us to leverage investment by third parties and reduce our net cash burn, while retaining significant economic rights.

Enable the Development of Pharmaceutical Systems Based on Biotechnology and Other New Compounds.    We believe there is a significant opportunity for pharmaceutical systems to add value to therapeutic medicine by administering biologics, such as proteins and peptides. We believe our technologies will improve the specificity, potency, convenience and cost-effectiveness of proteins, peptides, and other newly discovered drugs. Our systems can enable these compounds to be effectively administered, thus allowing them to become viable medicines. We can address the stability and storage needs of these compounds through our advanced formulation technology and package them in a suitable pharmaceutical system for optimum delivery. Through continuous administration, the SABER and CLOUD technology platforms may eliminate or reduce the need for multiple injections of these drugs. In addition, through precise placement of our proprietary biodegradable drug formulations, proteins can be delivered to specific tissues for extended periods of time, thus ensuring that large molecule agents are present at the desired site of action and minimizing the potential for adverse side effects elsewhere in the body.

Build Our Own Commercial Organization.    In the future, we may elect to build our own commercial, sales and marketing capability in order to capture more of the economic value of certain products that we may develop. If we choose to enter into third-party collaborations to commercialize our pharmaceutical product candidates, we may in the future enter into these alliances under circumstances that allow us to participate in the sales and marketing of these products.

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License Agreements

We have entered into an exclusive in-license and research and development agreement with the Virginia Commonwealth University Intellectual Property Foundation regarding the new chemical entities under development through our Epigenetic Regulator Program, including DUR-928. Under this licensing arrangement, we have agreed to undertake certain efforts to bring licensed products to market, prosecute related patents and report on progress to VCU. In addition, we are obligated to pay low single-digit percentage patent royalties on net sales of licensed products, subject to annual minimum payments and additional milestone payments. This license includes rights to eight patent families. We may terminate this agreement at any time by written notice, and Virginia Commonwealth University may terminate this agreement by written notice if there is an uncured material breach.

Strategic Agreements

We have entered into the following strategic collaboration and other agreements:

Sandoz AG.  In May 2017, we and Sandoz entered into a license agreement to develop and market POSIMIR in the United States. In June 2017, following the expiration of the applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (HSR), the agreement became effective. POSIMIR is our investigational post-operative pain relief depot that utilizes our patented SABER^® technology to deliver bupivacaine to provide up to three days of pain relief after surgery. We retain commercialization rights in the rest of the world. Under the terms of the agreement, Sandoz made a non-refundable upfront payment of $20 million which we received in June 2017, with the potential for up to an additional $43 million in milestone payments based on successful development and regulatory milestones (of which $30 million is currently feasible), and up to an additional $230 million in sales-based milestones.  We are responsible for the completion of the ongoing PERSIST Phase 3 clinical trial for POSIMIR as well as FDA interactions through potential approval. If approved, we also have certain manufacturing obligations under this agreement. Sandoz will have exclusive commercialization rights in the United States upon regulatory approval with sole funding responsibility for commercialization activities.  Sandoz will pay us a tiered double-digit royalty on product sales for a defined period, after which the license granted to Sandoz shall convert to a non-exclusive, fully paid, royalty-free, irrevocable and perpetual license. The term of the agreement shall be for the duration of Sandoz’s obligation to pay royalties for product sales under the Agreement. The agreement provides each party with specified termination rights, including the right of Sandoz to terminate at will after a specified period and each party to terminate the agreement upon material breach of the agreement by the other party. In October 2017, we announced that PERSIST, the Phase 3 clinical trial for POSIMIR, did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint of reduction in pain on movement over the first 48 hours after surgery as compared to standard bupivacaine HCl. The failure of the PERSIST trial for POSIMIR to achieve its primary endpoint gives Sandoz a right to terminate our agreement with them on thirty days’ notice, in addition to the rights they have to terminate for convenience on six months’ notice. 

Indivior UK Ltd. In September 2017, we entered into a patent purchase agreement (the “Indivior Agreement) with Indivior.  Pursuant to the Indivior Agreement, we assigned to Indivior certain patents that may provide further intellectual property protection for RBP-7000, Indivior’s investigational once-monthly injectable risperidone product for the treatment of schizophrenia.  In consideration for such assignment, Indivior made an upfront non-refundable payment to us of $12.5 million, and also agreed to make an additional $5 million payment to us contingent upon the achievement of a regulatory milestone, as well as quarterly earn-out payments that are based on a single digit percentage of U.S. net sales for certain products covered by the assigned patent rights, including RBP-7000. The assigned patent rights include granted patents extending through at least 2026.  We also receive a non-exclusive right under the assigned patents to develop and commercialize certain risperidone-containing products and products that do not contain risperidone or buprenorphine.  The agreement contains customary representations, warranties and indemnities of the parties. We received the non-refundable payment of $12.5 million from Indivior in September 2017 and recognized this amount as revenue from sale of intellectual property rights in the year ended December 31, 2017 as we do not have any continuing obligations under the purchase agreement.

Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.    In December 2014, we and Santen entered into a definitive agreement (the Santen Agreement). Pursuant to the Santen Agreement, we have granted Santen an exclusive worldwide license to our proprietary SABER formulation platform and other intellectual property to develop and commercialize a sustained release product utilizing our SABER technology to deliver an ophthalmology drug. Santen will control

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and fund the development and commercialization program, and the parties will establish a joint management committee to oversee, review and coordinate the development activities of the parties under the Agreement.

In connection with the license agreement, Santen paid us a non-refundable upfront fee of $2.0 million in cash and agreed to make contingent cash payments to us of up to $76.0 million upon the achievement of certain milestones, of which $13.0 million are development-based milestones (none of which has been achieved as of December 31, 2017), and $63.0 million are commercialization-based milestones including milestones requiring the achievement of certain product sales targets (none of which has been achieved as of December 31, 2017). Santen will also pay for certain of our costs incurred in the development of the licensed product. If the product is commercialized, we would also receive a tiered royalty on annual net product sales ranging from single-digit to the low double digits, determined on a country-by-country basis. Santen may terminate the Santen Agreement without cause at any time upon prior written notice, and either party may terminate the Santen Agreement upon certain circumstances including a material uncured breach. As of December 31, 2017, the cumulative aggregate payments received by us under this agreement were $3.3 million. In January 2018, we were notified by Santen that due to a shift in near term priorities, Santen has elected to reallocate R&D resources and put our program on pause until further notice.

Zogenix, Inc.    In July 2011, we and Zogenix entered into a Development and License Agreement (the Zogenix Agreement). We and Zogenix had previously been working together under a feasibility agreement pursuant to which our research and development costs were reimbursed by Zogenix. Under the Zogenix Agreement, Zogenix was responsible for the clinical development and commercialization of a proprietary, long-acting injectable formulation of risperidone using our SABER and other controlled-release depot formulation technologies. We were responsible for non-clinical, formulation and CMC development activities. We were reimbursed by Zogenix for our research and development efforts on the product. Zogenix paid a non-refundable upfront fee to us of $2.25 million in July 2011. Zogenix was obligated to pay us up to $103 million in total future milestone payments with respect to the product subject to and upon the achievement of various development, regulatory and sales milestones. Of these potential milestones, $28 million were development-based milestones (none of which had been achieved) and $75 million are sales-based milestones (none of which had been achieved). Zogenix was also required to pay a mid single-digit to low double-digit percentage patent royalty on annual net sales of the product determined on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis.

We granted to Zogenix an exclusive worldwide license, with sub-license rights, to our intellectual property rights related to our proprietary polymeric and non-polymeric controlled-release formulation technology to make and have made, use, offer for sale, sell and import risperidone products, where risperidone is the sole active agent, for administration by injection in the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other psychiatric related disorders in humans. We retained the right to supply Zogenix’s Phase 3 clinical trial and commercial product requirements on the terms set forth in the Zogenix Agreement.  Zogenix was permitted to terminate the Zogenix Agreement without cause at any time upon prior written notice, and either party was permitted to terminate the Zogenix Agreement upon certain circumstances. In August 2017, we and Zogenix terminated the Zogenix Agreement.  Under the mutual termination agreement, Zogenix’s development and commercialization rights are returned to us, and Zogenix will transfer to us all regulatory filings and development information related to Relday. As of December 31, 2017, the cumulative aggregate payments received by us under this agreement and the prior feasibility agreement were $20.1 million.

Pain Therapeutics, Inc.    In December 2002, we entered into an exclusive agreement with Pain Therapeutics to develop and commercialize on a worldwide basis oral sustained release, abuse deterrent opioid products incorporating four specified opioid drugs using our ORADUR technology. The agreement also provides Pain Therapeutics with the exclusive right to commercialize products developed under the agreement on a worldwide basis. In connection with the execution of the agreement, Pain Therapeutics paid us an upfront fee. In November 2005, Pain Therapeutics sublicensed the worldwide commercialization rights (except for Australia and New Zealand) to certain products developed under the agreement (including REMOXY ER) to King. In February 2011 Pfizer acquired King and thereby assumed the rights and obligations of King with respect to the sublicense agreement. In December 2005, we amended our agreement with Pain Therapeutics in order to specify our obligations with respect to the supply of key excipients for use in the licensed products. Under the amended agreement, we are responsible for formulation development, supply of selected key excipients used in the manufacture of licensed product and other specified tasks. We receive reimbursement for our research and development efforts on the licensed products and a manufacturing profit on our supply of key product excipients to

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Pain Therapeutics for use in the licensed products. In 2015, Pain Therapeutics returned to us all of Pain Therapeutics’ rights and was relieved of its obligations under our license agreement to develop and commercialize ORADUR-based formulations of hydrocodone but without impacting the rights and obligations of the two parties with respect to REMOXY ER, hydromorphone and oxymorphone. In 2016, Pain Therapeutics returned to us all of Pain Therapeutics’ rights and was relieved of its obligations under our license agreement to develop and commercialize ORADUR-based formulations of hydromorphone and oxymorphone but without impacting the rights and obligations of the two parties with respect to REMOXY ER. Under the agreement with Pain Therapeutics, subject to and upon the achievement of predetermined development and regulatory milestones for REMOXY ER, we are entitled to receive milestone payments of up to $3.0 million in the aggregate. As of December 31, 2017, we had received $1.5 million in cumulative milestone payments. In addition, if commercialized, we will receive royalties for REMOXY ER of between 6.0% to 11.5% of net sales of the product depending on the sales volumes. This agreement can be terminated by either party for material breach by the other party and by Pain Therapeutics without cause. As of December 31, 2017, the cumulative aggregate payments received by us from Pain Therapeutics under this agreement were $40.4 million.

In addition, in 2017, 2016 and 2015, we recognized zero, $653,000 and $96,000 of product revenue, respectively, related to key excipients for REMOXY ER and the associated cost of goods sold was zero, $216,000, and $51,000, respectively.

Commercial Product Lines

ALZET

The ALZET product line consists of miniature, implantable osmotic pumps and accessories used for experimental research in mice, rats and other laboratory animals. These pumps are neither approved nor intended for human use. ALZET pumps continuously deliver drugs, hormones and other test agents at controlled rates from one day to six weeks without the need for external connections, frequent handling or repeated dosing. In laboratory research, these infusion pumps can be used for systemic administration when implanted under the skin or in the body. They can be attached to a catheter for intravenous, intracerebral, or intra-arterial infusion or for targeted delivery, where the effects of a drug or test agent are localized in a particular tissue or organ. The wide use and applications of the ALZET product line is evidenced by the more than 16,000 scientific references that now exist.

We acquired the ALZET product line and assets used primarily in the manufacture, sale and distribution of this product line from ALZA in April 2000.

LACTEL Absorbable Polymers

We currently design, develop and manufacture a wide range of standard and custom biodegradable polymers based on lactide, glycolide and caprolactone under the LACTEL brand for pharmaceutical and medical device clients for use as raw materials in their products. These materials are manufactured and sold by us directly from our facility in Alabama and are used by us and our third-party customers for a variety of controlled-release and medical-device applications, including several FDA-approved commercial products.

Marketing and Sales

Historically, we have established strategic distribution and marketing alliances for our product candidates to leverage the established sales organizations that certain pharmaceutical companies have in markets we are targeting. In the future, we may elect to build our own commercial, sales and marketing capability in order to capture more of the economic value of certain products that we may develop. If we choose to enter into third-party collaborations to commercialize our pharmaceutical product candidates, we may in the future enter into these alliances under circumstances that allow us to participate in the sales and marketing of these products. We will continue to pursue strategic alliances and collaborators from time to time consistent with our strategy to leverage the established sales organizations of third-party collaborators to achieve greater market penetration for some of our products than we could on our own.

We market and sell our ALZET and LACTEL product lines through a direct sales force in the U.S. and through a network of distributors outside of the U.S.

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Suppliers

We purchase sucrose acetate isobutyrate, a raw material for our ORADUR and SABER-based pharmaceutical systems, including POSIMIR, REMOXY ER and other ORADUR-based drug candidates, pursuant to a supply agreement with Eastman Chemical Company. Our supply agreement with Eastman Chemical Company requires us to purchase a certain portion of our requirements for sucrose acetate isobutyrate from Eastman Chemical and obligates us to pay a fee per annum if our purchases do not meet specified sales targets. All of the contractually committed amounts under this agreement have been accrued. The agreement may be terminated by either party under certain circumstances, including any material uncured breach by, or the insolvency, liquidation or bankruptcy of, or similar proceedings involving, the other party. We believe that this agreement will provide a sufficient supply of these raw materials to meet our needs for the foreseeable future. We do not have in place long term supply agreements with respect to all of the components of any of our pharmaceutical product candidates, however, and are subject to the risk that we may not be able to procure all required components in adequate quantities with acceptable quality, within acceptable time frames or at reasonable cost.

Customers

Our product revenues principally are derived from the ALZET product line to academic and pharmaceutical industry researchers, the LACTEL product lines to pharmaceutical and medical device customers, and from the sale of certain key excipients that are included in REMOXY ER and other products. Until such time that we are able to bring our pharmaceutical product candidates to market, if at all, we expect these to be our principal sources of product revenue. We also receive revenue from collaborative research and development arrangements with our third-party collaborators. In 2017, Sandoz and Indivior accounted for 41% and 25% of our total revenues.  In 2016, Tolmar Inc. accounted for 15% of our total revenues. In 2015, Zogenix and Tolmar Inc. accounted for 26% and 11% of our total revenues, respectively.

Manufacturing

The process for manufacturing our pharmaceutical product candidates is technically complex, requires special skills, and must be performed in a qualified facility. We have entered into development and commercial manufacturing agreements with third parties for the manufacture of POSIMIR and DUR-928. In addition, we have a small multi-discipline manufacturing facility in California that we have used to manufacture research and clinical supplies of several of our pharmaceutical product candidates under GMP, including POSIMIR and REMOXY ER. In the future, we intend to develop additional manufacturing capabilities for our pharmaceutical product candidates and components to meet our demands and those of our third party collaborators by contracting with third party manufacturers and by potentially constructing additional manufacturing space at our current facilities in California and Alabama. We manufacture our ALZET product line and certain key components for REMOXY ER at one of our California facilities and our LACTEL product line at our Alabama facility.

Patents and Proprietary Rights

Our success depends in part on our ability to obtain patents, to protect trade secrets, to operate without infringing upon the proprietary rights of others and to prevent others from infringing on our proprietary rights. Our policy is to seek to protect our proprietary position by, among other methods, filing U.S. and foreign patent applications related to our proprietary technology, inventions and improvements that are important to the development of our business. As of March 2, 2018, we owned or exclusively in-licensed over 45 unexpired issued U.S. patents and over 410 unexpired issued foreign patents (which include granted European patent rights that have been validated in various EU member states). In addition, we have over 35 pending U.S. patent applications and over 100 foreign applications pending in Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada and other countries.

Proprietary rights relating to our planned and potential products will be protected from unauthorized use by third parties only to the extent that they are covered by valid and enforceable patents or are effectively maintained as trade secrets. Patents owned by or licensed to us may not afford protection against competitors, and our pending patent applications now or hereafter filed by or licensed to us may not result in patents being issued. In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the U.S.

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The patent positions of biopharmaceutical companies involve complex legal and factual questions and, therefore, their enforceability cannot be predicted with certainty. Our patents or patent applications, or those licensed to us, if issued, may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, and the rights granted thereunder may not provide proprietary protection or competitive advantages to us against competitors with similar technology. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop similar technologies or duplicate any technology developed by us. Because of the extensive time required for development, testing and regulatory review of a potential product, it is possible that, before any of our products can be commercialized, any related patent may expire or remain in existence for only a short period following commercialization, thus reducing any advantage of the patent, which could adversely affect our ability to protect future product development and, consequently, our operating results and financial position.

Because patent applications in the U.S. are typically maintained in secrecy for at least 18 months after filing and since publication of discoveries in the scientific or patent literature often lag behind actual discoveries, we cannot be certain that we were the first to make the inventions covered by each of our issued or pending patent applications or that we were the first to file for protection of inventions set forth in such patent applications.

Our planned or potential products may be covered by third-party patents or other intellectual property rights, in which case we would need to obtain a license to continue developing or marketing these products. Any required licenses may not be available to us on acceptable terms, if at all. If we do not obtain any required licenses, we could encounter delays in product introductions while we attempt to design around these patents, or could find that the development, manufacture or sale of products requiring such licenses is foreclosed. Litigation may be necessary to defend against or assert such claims of infringement, to enforce patents issued to us, to protect trade secrets or know-how owned by us, or to determine the scope and validity of the proprietary rights of others. In addition, interference, derivation, post-grant oppositions, and similar proceedings may be necessary to determine rights to inventions in our patents and patent applications. Litigation or similar proceedings could result in substantial costs to and diversion of effort by us, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. These efforts by us may not be successful.

We may rely, in certain circumstances, on trade secrets to protect our technology. However, trade secrets are difficult to protect. We seek to protect our proprietary technology and processes, in part, by confidentiality agreements with our employees and certain contractors. There can be no assurance that these agreements will not be breached, that we will have adequate remedies for any breach, or that our trade secrets will not otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors. To the extent that our employees, consultants or contractors use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may also arise as to the rights in related or resulting know-how and inventions.

Government Regulation

The Food and Drug Administration.    The FDA and comparable regulatory agencies in state and local jurisdictions and in foreign countries impose substantial requirements upon the clinical development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical products. These agencies and other federal, state and local entities regulate research and development activities and the testing, manufacture, quality control, safety, effectiveness, labeling, storage, distribution, record keeping, approval, advertising and promotion of our products. We believe that our initial pharmaceutical systems will be regulated as drugs by the FDA rather than as biologics or devices.

The process required by the FDA under the new drug provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (the Act) before our initial pharmaceutical systems may be marketed in the U.S. generally involves the following:

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Section 505 of the Act describes three types of new drug applications: (1) an application that contains full reports of investigations of safety and effectiveness (section 505(b)(1)); (2) an application that contains full reports of investigations of safety and effectiveness but where at least some of the information required for approval comes from studies not conducted by or for the applicant and for which the applicant has not obtained a right of reference (section 505(b)(2)); and (3) an application that contains information to show that the proposed product is identical in active ingredient, dosage form, strength, route of administration, labeling, quality, performance characteristics and intended use, among other things, to a previously approved product (section 505(j)). A supplement to an application is a new drug application. We expect that most of the Drug Delivery Program product candidates will be approved by submission of a new drug application under section 505(b)(2) and that our drug candidates deriving from our Epigenetic Regulator Program will be approved by submission of a new drug application under section 505(b)(1).

The testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort, and financial resources, and we cannot be certain that any approval will be granted on a timely basis, if at all. Even though several of our pharmaceutical systems utilize active drug ingredients that are commercially marketed in the United States in other dosage forms, we need to establish safety and effectiveness of those active ingredients in the formulation and dosage forms that we are developing.

Preclinical tests include laboratory evaluation of the product, its chemistry, formulation and stability, as well as animal studies to assess the potential safety and efficacy of the pharmaceutical system. We then submit the results of the preclinical tests, together with manufacturing information and analytical data, to the FDA as part of an IND, which must become effective before we may begin human clinical trials. Each subsequent new clinical protocol must also be submitted to the IND. An IND automatically becomes effective 30 days after receipt by the FDA, unless the FDA, within the 30-day time period, raises concerns or questions about the conduct of the trials as outlined in the IND and imposes a clinical hold. In such a case, the IND sponsor and the FDA must resolve any outstanding concerns before clinical trials can begin. Our submission of an IND may not result in FDA authorization to commence clinical trials. Further, an independent Institutional Review Board at each medical center proposing to conduct the clinical trials must review and approve any clinical study as well as the related informed consent forms and authorization forms that permit us to use individually identifiable health information of study participants.

Human clinical trials are typically conducted in three sequential phases which may overlap:

In the case of products for severe diseases, such as chronic pain, or life-threatening diseases such as cancer, the initial human testing is often conducted in patients with disease rather than in healthy volunteers. Since these patients already have the target disease or condition, these studies may provide initial evidence of efficacy traditionally obtained in Phase 2 trials, and thus these trials are frequently referred to as Phase 1/2 clinical trials. We cannot be certain that we will successfully complete Phase 1, Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trials of our pharmaceutical systems within any specific time period, if at all. Furthermore, the FDA or the Institutional Review Board or the sponsor may suspend clinical trials at any time on various grounds, including a finding that the subjects or patients are being exposed to an unacceptable health risk. During the clinical development of products, sponsors frequently meet and consult with the FDA in order to ensure that the design of their studies will likely provide data both sufficient and relevant for later regulatory approval; however, no assurance of approvability can be given by the FDA.

The results of product development, preclinical studies and clinical studies are submitted to the FDA as part of a new drug application, or NDA, for approval of the marketing and commercial shipment of the product. Submission of an NDA requires the payment of a substantial user fee to the FDA, and although the agency has defined user fee

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goals for the time in which to respond to sponsor applications, we cannot assure you that the FDA will act in any particular timeframe. The FDA may deny a new drug application if the applicable regulatory criteria are not satisfied or may require additional clinical data. Even if such data is submitted, the FDA may ultimately decide that the new drug application does not satisfy the criteria for approval. Once issued, the FDA may withdraw product approval if compliance with regulatory standards is not maintained or if safety problems occur after the product reaches the market. Requirements for additional Phase 4 studies (post approval marketing studies) to confirm safety and effectiveness in a broader commercial use population may be imposed as a condition of marketing approval. In addition, the FDA requires surveillance programs to monitor approved products which have been commercialized, and the agency has the power to require changes in labeling or to prevent further marketing of a product based on the results of these post-marketing programs. Any comparative claims that we would like to make for our products vis-à-vis other dosage forms or products will need to be substantiated generally by two adequate and well-controlled head-to-head clinical trials.

Satisfaction of FDA requirements or similar requirements of state, local and foreign regulatory agencies typically takes several years and the actual time required may vary substantially, based upon the type, complexity and novelty of the pharmaceutical product. Government regulation may delay or prevent marketing of potential products for a considerable period of time and impose costly procedures upon our activities. We cannot be certain that the FDA or any other regulatory agency will grant approval for any of our pharmaceutical systems under development on a timely basis, if at all. Success in preclinical or early stage clinical trials does not assure success in later stage clinical trials. Data obtained from preclinical and clinical activities is not always conclusive and may be susceptible to varying interpretations which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. Evolving safety concerns can result in the imposition of new requirements for expensive and time consuming tests, such as for QT interval cardiotoxicity testing. Even if a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly limited to specific indications. Further, even after regulatory approval is obtained, later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product may result in restrictions on the product or even complete withdrawal of the product from the market. Any pharmaceutical systems that we may develop and obtain approval for would also be subject to adverse findings of the active drug ingredients being marketed in different dosage forms and formulations. Delays in obtaining, or failures to obtain regulatory approvals would have a material adverse effect on our business. Marketing our pharmaceutical systems abroad will require similar regulatory approvals and is subject to similar risks. In addition, we cannot predict what adverse governmental regulations may arise from future U.S. or foreign governmental action.

Any pharmaceutical systems manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals are subject to pervasive and continuing regulation by the FDA, including record-keeping requirements and reporting of adverse experiences with the drug. Drug manufacturers and their subcontractors are required to register their establishments with the FDA and state agencies, and are subject to periodic unannounced inspections by the FDA and state agencies for compliance with good manufacturing practices, which impose procedural and documentation requirements upon us and our third party manufacturers. We cannot be certain that we or our present or future suppliers will be able to comply with the GMP regulations and other FDA regulatory requirements.

The FDA regulates drug labeling and promotion activities. The FDA has actively enforced regulations prohibiting the marketing of products for unapproved uses, and federal and state authorities are also actively litigating against sponsors who promote their drugs for unapproved uses under various fraud and abuse and false claims act statutes. We and our pharmaceutical systems are also subject to a variety of state laws and regulations in those states or localities where our pharmaceutical systems are or will be marketed. Any applicable state or local regulations may hinder our ability to market our pharmaceutical systems in those states or localities. We are also subject to numerous federal, state and local laws relating to such matters as safe working conditions, manufacturing practices, environmental protection, fire hazard control, and disposal of hazardous or potentially hazardous substances. We may incur significant costs to comply with such laws and regulations now or in the future.

The FDA’s policies may change and additional government regulations may be enacted which could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our potential pharmaceutical systems. Moreover, increased attention to the containment of health care costs in the U.S. and in foreign markets could result in new government regulations that could have a material adverse effect on our business. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of adverse governmental regulation that might arise from future legislative or administrative action, either in the U.S. or abroad.

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For several years, the FDA has required companies engaged in manufacturing and sale of opioid drug products to have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to ensure that the benefits of the drugs continue to outweigh the risks. The affected opioid drugs include brand name and generic products and are formulated with the active ingredients fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and oxymorphone.

All manufacturers of long-acting and extended-release opioids must ensure that training is provided to prescribers of these medications and develop information that prescribers can use when counseling patients about the risks and benefits of opioid use.

More recently, in February 2016, the FDA announced a comprehensive action plan to take concrete steps towards reducing the impact of opioid abuse on American families and communities. As part of this plan, the agency will review product and labelling decisions and re-examine the risk-benefit paradigm for opioids.

Certain of our drug candidates, including REMOXY ER, are subject to the REMS requirement. These required REMS programs may cause delays in marketing approvals for these drug candidates. In addition, there may be increased cost, administrative burden and potential liability associated with the marketing and sale of these types of drug candidates subject to the REMS requirement, which could negatively impact the commercial benefits to us and our collaborators from the sale of these drug candidates.

The Drug Enforcement Administration.    The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) regulates chemical compounds as Schedule I, II, III, IV or V substances, with Schedule I substances considered to present the highest risk of substance abuse and Schedule V substances the lowest risk. Certain active ingredients in REMOXY are listed by the DEA as Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Consequently, their manufacture, research, shipment, storage, sale and use are subject to a high degree of oversight and regulation. For example, all Schedule II drug prescriptions must be signed by a physician, physically presented to a pharmacist and may not be refilled without a new prescription. Furthermore, the amount of Schedule II substances we can obtain for clinical trials and commercial distribution is limited by the DEA and our quota may not be sufficient to complete clinical trials or meet commercial demand. There is a risk that DEA regulations may interfere with the supply of the drugs used in our clinical trials, and, in the future, our ability to produce and distribute our products in the volume needed to meet commercial demand, which could negatively impact us and our collaborators.

Competition

We may face competition from other companies in numerous industries including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and drug delivery. POSIMIR, REMOXY ER and RBP-7000, if approved, will compete with currently marketed oral opioids, transdermal opioids, local anesthetic patches, anti-psychotics, stimulants, implantable and external infusion pumps which can be used for infusion of opioids and local anesthetics. Products of these types are marketed by Purdue Pharma, AbbVie, Janssen, Medtronic, Endo, AstraZeneca, Pernix Therapeutics, Tricumed, Halyard Health, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Pacira, Acorda Therapeutics, Mallinckrodt, Shire, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Egalet and others. Purdue Pharma, Sandoz, Actavis, Collegium Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Elite Pharmaceuticals, Intellipharmaceutics, Egalet, Charleston Laboratories, Daiichi Sankyo, Teva Pharmaceuticals and others have also announced regulatory approval or development plans for abuse deterrent opioid products. Our ORADUR-ADHD product candidates, if approved, will compete with currently marketed or approved products by Shire, Johnson & Johnson, UCB, Novartis, Noven, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and others. RBP-7000, if approved, will compete with currently marketed products by Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Otsuka, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Teva and others. Competition for DUR-928, if approved, will depend on the specific indications for which DUR-928 is approved. Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Gilead, Shire, Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Allergan, Galectin Therapeutics, Genfit, Pfizer, Roche, Galmed Pharmaceuticals, Tobira Therapeutics, Madrigal Therapeutics, Gemphire, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk, Takeda, Vital Therapies and others have development plans for products to treat NAFLD/NASH and other liver diseases. Ischemix, Thrasos Therapeutics, AM-Pharma, Complexa, AbbVie, AlloCure, Quark Pharmaceuticals and others have development plans for products to treat acute kidney injury. Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Almirall, LEO Pharma, Pfizer, Janssen, Abbvie, Boerhinger-Ingelheim, Amgen, Sandoz, Astra-Zeneca, Anacor, Valeant, Takeda, Merck, Idera Pharmaceuticals and others have development plans for products to treat psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Numerous companies are applying significant resources and expertise to the problems of drug delivery and several of these are focusing or may focus on delivery of drugs to the intended site of action, including Alkermes, Pacira,

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Immune Pharmaceuticals, Innocoll, Nektar, Kimberly-Clark, Acorda Therapeutics, Flamel, Alexza, Mallinckrodt, Pfizer, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Egalet, Acura, Elite Pharmaceuticals, Phosphagenics, Intellipharmaceutics, Collegium Pharmaceutical, Heron Therapeutics and others. Some of these competitors may be addressing the same therapeutic areas or indications as we are. Our current and potential competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection or commercializing products before us. Many of these entities have significantly greater research and development capabilities than we do, as well as substantially more marketing, manufacturing, financial and managerial resources. These entities represent significant competition for us. Acquisitions of, or investments in, competing pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies by large corporations could increase such competitors’ financial, marketing, manufacturing and other resources.

Any products we develop using our pharmaceutical systems technologies will compete in highly competitive markets. Many of our potential competitors in these markets have greater development, financial, manufacturing, marketing, and sales resources than we do and we cannot be certain that they will not succeed in developing products or technologies which will render our technologies and products obsolete or noncompetitive. In addition, many of those potential competitors have significantly greater experience than we do in their respective fields.

Corporate History, Headquarters and Website Information

We were incorporated in Delaware in February 1998. We completed our initial public offering on September 28, 2000. Our principal executive offices are located at 10260 Bubb Road, Cupertino, California, 95014. Our telephone number is (408) 777-1417, and our website address is www.durect.com. We make our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports available free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file these reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website to access all of this information is www.sec.gov. Our Code of Ethics can be found on our website.

Employees

As of March 2, 2018, we had 93 employees, including 49 in research and development, 21 in manufacturing and 23 in selling, general and administrative. From time to time, we also employ independent contractors to support our research, development and administrative organizations. None of our employees are represented by a collective bargaining unit, and we have never experienced a work stoppage. We consider our relations with our employees to be good.

Executive Officers of the Registrant

Our executive officers and their ages as of March 2, 2018 are as follows:

Felix Theeuwes, D.Sc. co-founded DURECT in February 1998 and has served as our Chairman, Chief Scientific Officer and a Director since July 1998. In February 2018, his title became Chairman, Distinguished Scientist and Director.  Prior to co-founding DURECT, Dr. Theeuwes held various positions at ALZA Corporation, including President of New Ventures from August 1997 to August 1998, President of ALZA Research and Development from 1995 to August 1997, President of ALZA Technology Institute from 1994 to April 1995 and Chief Scientist from 1982 to June 1997. Dr. Theeuwes holds a D.Sc. degree in Physics from the University of Leuven (Louvain), Belgium. He also served as a post-doctoral fellow and visiting research assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kansas and has completed the Stanford Executive Program.

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James E. Brown, D.V.M. co-founded DURECT in February 1998 and has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director since June 1998. He previously worked at ALZA Corporation as Vice President of Biopharmaceutical and Implant Research and Development from June 1995 to June 1998. Prior to that, Dr. Brown held various positions at Syntex Corporation, a pharmaceutical company, including Director of Business Development from May 1994 to May 1995, Director of Joint Ventures for Discovery Research from April 1992 to May 1995, and held a number of positions including Program Director for Syntex Research and Development from October 1985 to March 1992. Dr. Brown holds a B.A. from San Jose State University and a D.V.M. (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) from the University of California, Davis where he also conducted post-graduate work in pharmacology and toxicology.

Matthew J. Hogan, M.B.A. has served as our Chief Financial Officer since September 2006. He was the Chief Financial Officer at Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. from 2000 to 2006, and a consultant from March 2006. Prior to joining Ciphergen, Mr. Hogan was the Chief Financial Officer at Avocet Medical, Inc. from 1999 to 2000. From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Hogan was the Chief Financial Officer at Microcide Pharmaceuticals, Inc. From 1986 to 1996, he held various positions in the investment banking group at Merrill Lynch & Co., most recently as a Director focusing on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Mr. Hogan holds a B.A. in economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.

Judy R. Joice has served as our Senior Vice President, Operations and Corporate Quality Assurance since March 2014 and as our Vice President, Operations and Corporate Quality Assurance since April 2011. Previously, Ms. Joice served as our Vice President, Corporate Quality Assurance since July 2008 and as our Executive Director, Quality Assurance from July 2007 to July 2008. She has over 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry with such companies as Nektar Therapeutics, Oread, Roche Pharmaceuticals, and Syntex Research. During her career, Ms. Joice has gained broad experience in CMC development activities including novel excipients, new chemical entities, devices, and combination products. She has developed, implemented and managed all aspects of company-wide quality systems and compliance functions, ranging from drug development through commercial manufacturing. Ms. Joice has a B.S. in Chemistry from California State University, Hayward.

In addition to the other information in this Form 10-K, a number of factors may affect our business and prospects. These factors include but are not limited to the following, which you should consider carefully in evaluating our business and prospects. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Risks Related To Our Business

New chemical entities derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program, which is in the early stages of development, may require more time and resources for development, testing and regulatory approval than our Drug Delivery Program product candidates, and may not result in viable commercial products

Our Epigenetic Regulator Program is in the early stages of development, involves a novel therapeutic approach and new chemical entities, requires significant further research and development and regulatory approvals and is subject to the risks of failure inherent in the development of products based on innovative approaches. New chemical entities derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program are molecules that have not previously been approved and marketed as therapeutics, unlike product candidates in our Drug Delivery Programs, in which we apply our formulation expertise and technologies largely to active pharmaceutical ingredients whose safety and efficacy have previously been established but which we aim to improve in some manner through a new formulation. As a result, the product candidates from our Epigenetic Regulator Program may face greater risk of unanticipated safety issues or other side-effects, or may not demonstrate efficacy. Further, the regulatory pathway for our new chemical entities may be more demanding than that for product candidates under our Drug Delivery Programs, for which we may be able to leverage existing data under Section 505(b)(2) of the Act to reduce development risk, time and cost. For example, we have yet to define the therapeutic dose or dosing regimen for DUR-928, the first drug candidate in our Epigenetic Regulator Program.

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Also, because our Epigenetic Regulator Program is in early stages, we have not defined with precision those indications we wish to pursue initially, each of which may have unique challenges. If the first indications pursued do not show positive results, the credibility of any product candidate from this program may be tarnished, even if the molecule might be effective for other indications. Our decisions regarding which indications to pursue may cause us to fail to capitalize on indications that could have given rise to viable commercial products and profitable market opportunities.

Early indications of activity from Phase 1 clinical trials of DUR-928 may not predict the results of later trials

While Phase 1 clinical trials of DUR-928 have shown a dose dependent reduction of certain biomarkers after a single oral dose in patients with NASH, these trials are designed to assess the safety of DUR-928, and are not designed to evaluate its efficacy. Additional controlled Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials will be required to evaluate the safety and efficacy of DUR-928 to treat any indication, including NASH. There can be no assurance that these studies will demonstrate the safety or efficacy of DUR-928 in a statistically significant manner. The failure of DUR-928 to show efficacy in Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trials would significantly harm our business.

Plans and prospects for POSIMIR are uncertain following the failure of the PERSIST trial to achieve its primary endpoint.

The failure of the PERSIST trial for POSIMIR to achieve its primary endpoint gives Sandoz a right to terminate our agreement with them on thirty days’ notice, in addition to the right Sandoz has to terminate for convenience on six months’ notice.  Sandoz may elect to terminate the agreement, in which case we will not receive any milestone or royalty payments under the agreement and will be responsible for commercialization of POSIMIR in the United States, if approved.  Even if Sandoz does not terminate the agreement, we remain responsible for obtaining approval of POSIMIR from the Food and Drug Administration.  The decision whether to continue the development of POSIMIR and seek regulatory approval will require further analysis of the PERSIST trial data and other clinical data for POSIMIR, as well as possible regulatory approval strategies.  We may elect to terminate development of POSIMIR.  If we elect to continue to develop and seek approval for POSIMIR, we may be required to make a larger investment than previously planned, which would limit the funds available for other product development activities or require us to raise capital earlier than anticipated.  It may also take longer to receive FDA approval than anticipated, and such approval may never occur. 

The FDA may require more information or clinical studies for all of our product candidates, and our product candidates may never be approved.

The failure to adequately demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of a pharmaceutical product candidate under development to the satisfaction of FDA and other regulatory agencies will result in delays to the regulatory approval or non-approvability of our product candidates, and could materially harm our business. Clinical trials may not demonstrate the sufficient levels of safety and efficacy necessary to obtain the requisite regulatory approvals for our product candidates, or may require such significant numbers of patients or additional costs to make it impractical to satisfy the FDA’s requirements, and thus our product candidates may not be approved for marketing. For example, the recent Phase 3 PERSIST trial for POSIMIR did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint of reduction in pain on movement over the first 48 hours after surgery as compared to standard bupivacaine HCl..  In addition, during the review process, the FDA may request more information regarding the safety of our product candidates, as they have in their Complete Response Letter for POSIMIR, and answering such questions could require significant additional work and expense, and take a significant amount of time, resulting in a material delay of approval or the failure to obtain approval. During the review process, the FDA may also request more information regarding the chemistry, manufacturing or controls related to our product candidates or to abuse deterrent properties of opioid product candidates, as they have in their Complete Response Letters for REMOXY ER, and answering such questions could require significant additional work and expense, and take a significant amount of time, resulting in a material delay of approval or the failure to obtain approval. Additionally, even if our product candidates receive FDA approval, the FDA may require that we conduct additional clinical studies after such approval, place limitations on our products in applicable labels, delay approval to market our products or limit the use of our products, which may harm our business and results of operations.

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We currently have a significant amount of debt. Compliance with repayment obligations and other covenants may be difficult, and failure by us to fulfill our obligations under the applicable loan agreements may cause the repayment obligations to accelerate.

In July 2016, we entered into a Loan and Security Agreement (the 2016 Loan Agreement) with Oxford Finance LLC (Oxford Finance), pursuant to which Oxford Finance provided a $20 million secured single-draw term loan to us with a maturity date of August 1, 2020. The 2016 Loan Agreement replaces a prior term loan agreement with Oxford Finance originally entered into in June 2014. The term loan was fully drawn at close and the proceeds may be used for working capital and general business requirements. The term loan repayment schedule provides for interest only payments for the first 18 months, followed by consecutive monthly payments of principal and interest in arrears starting on March 1, 2018 and continuing through the maturity date of August 1, 2020. The 2016 Loan Agreement provides for a floating interest rate (7.95% initially and 8.87% as of December 31, 2017) based on an index rate plus a spread, a $150,000 facility fee that was paid at closing and an additional payment equal to 9.25% of the principal amount of the term loan, which is due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility. If we elect to prepay the loan, there is also a prepayment fee between 1% and 3% of the principal amount of the term loan depending on the timing of prepayment. In February 2018, the Company and Oxford Finance entered into a First Amendment of the Loan Agreement, which modified the terms of the Loan Agreement to change the first principal payment date from March 1, 2018 to December 1, 2018 and to increase the additional payment due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility from 9.25% of the principal amount of the term loan to 10% of such amount.  The interest rate and the maturity date remain unchanged, and the Company paid Oxford Finance a loan modification fee of $100,000. Our debt repayment obligations under the 2016 Loan Agreement may prove a burden to the Company as they become due, particularly following the expiration of the interest-only period.

The 2016 Loan Agreement contains customary events of default, including, among other things, our failure to fulfill certain of our obligations under the 2016 Loan Agreement and the occurrence of a material adverse change in our business, operations or condition (financial or otherwise), a material impairment of the prospect of repayment of any portion of the loan, the failure to deliver an unqualified audit report and board approved financial projections within time periods set forth in the Loan Agreement, or a material impairment in the perfection or priority of lender’s lien in the collateral or in the value of such collateral. In the event of default by us under the 2016 Loan Agreement, the lender would be entitled to exercise its remedies thereunder, including the right to accelerate the debt, upon which we may be required to repay all amounts then outstanding under the 2016 Loan Agreement, which could harm our business, operations and financial condition.

In addition, the term loan is secured by substantially all of our assets, except that the collateral does not include any equity interests in the Company, any intellectual property (including all licensing, collaboration and similar agreements relating thereto), and certain other excluded assets. The 2016 Loan Agreement contains customary representations, warranties and covenants by us, which covenants limit our ability to convey, sell, lease, transfer, assign or otherwise dispose of certain of our assets; engage in any business other than the businesses currently engaged in by us or reasonably related thereto; liquidate or dissolve; make certain management changes; undergo certain change of control events; create, incur, assume, or be liable with respect to certain indebtedness; grant certain liens; pay dividends and make certain other restricted payments; make certain investments; make payments on any subordinated debt; and enter into transactions with any of our affiliates outside of the ordinary course of business or permit our subsidiaries to do the same. Complying with these covenants may make it more difficult for us to successfully execute our business strategy.

We do not control development of REMOXY ER or RBP-7000

We have relied on Pain Therapeutics, King, and Pfizer and its subsidiaries to devote time and resources to the development, manufacturing and commercialization of REMOXY ER. In October 2014, Pfizer notified Pain Therapeutics that Pfizer had decided to discontinue development of REMOXY ER and that Pfizer would return all rights, including responsibility for regulatory activities, to Pain Therapeutics. In September 2016, Pain Therapeutics received a Complete Response Letter for REMOXY ER; we are dependent on Pain Therapeutics to address this Complete Response Letter and there can be no assurance that Pain Therapeutics will continue development of REMOXY ER or that an NDA for REMOXY ER will ever be approved by the FDA. Any further delay or

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discontinuation in the development of REMOXY ER will significantly harm our prospects and would be likely to have a negative effect on the price of our common stock.

We rely on Indivior for the development and commercialization of RBP-7000.  There can be no assurance that Indivior will continue development of RBP-7000, or if Indivior continues development of RBP-7000, there can be no assurance that an NDA for RBP-7000 will ever be approved by the FDA.  If Indivior does not continue development of or commercialize RPB-7000, we will not receive milestone or earn-out payments under our agreement with them.

Development of our pharmaceutical product candidates is not complete, and we cannot be certain that our product candidates will be able to be commercialized

To be profitable, we or our third-party collaborators must successfully research, develop, obtain regulatory approval for, manufacture, introduce, market and distribute our pharmaceutical product candidates under development. For each product candidate that we or our third-party collaborators intend to commercialize, we must successfully meet a number of critical developmental milestones for each disease or medical condition targeted, including:

The time frame necessary to achieve these developmental milestones for any individual product is long and uncertain, and we may not successfully complete these milestones for any of our products in development. We have not yet completed development of any of our product candidates, including DUR-928. We may not be able to finalize the design or formulation of any of these product candidates. Further, although we believe our design and formulation of REMOXY ER, POSIMIR and ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER to be substantially complete, there can be no assurance that additional developments will not be required prior to any regulatory approval of these products. In addition, we may select components, solvents, excipients or other ingredients to include in our product candidates that have not been previously approved for use in pharmaceutical products, which may require us or our collaborators to perform additional studies and may delay clinical testing and regulatory approval of our product candidates. Even after we complete the design of a product candidate, the product candidate must still complete required clinical trials and additional safety testing in animals before approval for commercialization. We are continuing testing and development of our product candidates and may explore possible design or formulation changes to address issues of safety, manufacturing efficiency and performance. We or our collaborators may not be able to complete development of any product candidates that will be safe and effective and that will have a commercially reasonable treatment and storage period. If we or our third-party collaborators are unable to complete development of DUR-928, ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER, or RBP-7000, or other product candidates, we will not be able to earn revenue from them, which would materially harm our business.

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We or our third-party collaborators must show the safety and efficacy of our drug candidates in animal studies and human clinical trials to the satisfaction of regulatory authorities before they can be sold; failure to obtain approvals for POSIMIR, RBP-7000, REMOXY ER, DUR-928 or our other product candidates would significantly harm our business, prospects and financial condition

Before we or our third-party collaborators can obtain government approval to sell any of our pharmaceutical product candidates, we or they, as applicable, must demonstrate through laboratory performance studies and safety testing, nonclinical (animal) studies and clinical (human) trials that each system is safe and effective for human use for each targeted indication. The clinical development status of our major development programs is as follows:

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We are currently in the clinical, preclinical or research stages with respect to all of our product candidates under development. We plan to continue extensive and costly tests, clinical trials and safety studies in animals to assess the safety and effectiveness of our product candidates. These studies include laboratory performance studies and safety testing, clinical trials and animal toxicological studies necessary to support regulatory approval of development products in the United States and other countries of the world. These studies are costly, complex and last for long durations, and may not yield data supportive of the safety or efficacy of our drug candidates or required for regulatory approval.

Many of our drug candidates under development, including REMOXY ER are subject to mandatory Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) programs, which could delay the approval of these drug candidates, reduce demand for them, and increase the cost, burden and liability associated with their commercialization

For several years, FDA has required companies engaged in manufacturing and sales of opioid products to have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to ensure that the benefits of the drugs continue to outweigh the risks. The affected opioid drugs include brand name and generic products and are formulated with the active ingredients fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and oxymorphone.  All manufacturers of long-acting and extended-release opioids must ensure that training is provided to prescribers of these medications and develop information that prescribers can use when counseling patients about the risks and benefits of opioid use.  The FDA has also announced safety labeling changes and post-market study requirements for extended-release and long-acting opioid analgesics (ER/LA opioids). The updated class-wide labeling changes state that ER/LA opioids are indicated for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate. The updated indication further clarifies that, because of the risks of addiction, abuse, and misuse, even at recommended doses, and because of the greater risks of overdose and death, these drugs should be reserved for use in patients for whom alternative treatment options (e.g., non-opioid analgesics or immediate-release opioids) are ineffective, not tolerated, or would be otherwise inadequate to provide sufficient management of pain; ER/LA opioid analgesics are not indicated for as-needed pain relief. Recognizing that more information is needed to assess the serious risks associated with long-term use of ER/LA opioids, the FDA is requiring the drug companies that make these products to conduct further post-market studies and clinical trials. These changes may result in a decrease in prescriptions for this class of drugs and will increase the costs borne by manufacturers of ER/LA opioids.  More recently, in February 2016, the FDA announced a comprehensive action plan to take concrete steps towards reducing the impact of opioid abuse on American families and communities. As part of this plan, the agency will review product and labelling decisions and re-examine the risk-benefit paradigm for opioids.

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Many of our drug candidates including REMOXY ER are subject to the REMS requirement. The FDA’s REMS requirements have been evolving, and until the contours of required REMS programs are established by the FDA and understood by drug developers and marketers such as ourselves and our collaborators, and until the results of the FDA’s recently announced initiatives are known, there may be delays in marketing approvals for these drug candidates. In addition, there may be increased cost, administrative burden and potential liability associated with the marketing and sale of these types of drug candidates subject to the REMS requirement, as well as decreased demand resulting from new labeling requirements, which could negatively impact the commercial benefits to us and our collaborators from the sale of these drug candidates.

We depend to a large extent on third-party collaborators, and we have limited or no control over the development, sales, distribution and disclosure for our pharmaceutical product candidates which are the subject of third-party collaborative or license agreements

Our performance depends to a large extent on the ability of our third-party collaborators to successfully develop and obtain approvals for our pharmaceutical product candidates. We have entered into agreements with Sandoz, Indivior, Pain Therapeutics, Santen, Orient Pharma and others under which we granted such third parties the right to develop, apply for regulatory approval for, market, promote or distribute POSIMIR, RBP-7000, REMOXY ER and other product candidates, subject to payments to us in the form of product royalties, earn-out and other payments. We have limited or no control over the expertise or resources that any collaborator may devote to the development, clinical trial strategy, regulatory approval, marketing or sale of these product candidates, or the timing of their activities. Any of our present or future collaborators may not perform their obligations as expected. These collaborators may breach or terminate their agreement with us or otherwise fail to conduct their collaborative activities successfully and in a timely manner. Enforcing any of these agreements in the event of a breach by the other party could require the expenditure of significant resources and consume a significant amount of management time and attention. Our collaborators may also conduct their activities in a manner that is different from the manner we would have chosen, had we been developing such product candidates ourselves. Further, our collaborators may elect not to develop or commercialize product candidates arising out of our collaborative arrangements or not devote sufficient resources to the development, clinical trials, regulatory approval, manufacture, marketing or sale of these product candidates. If any of these events occur, we may not recognize revenue from the commercialization of our product candidates based on such collaborations. In addition, these third parties may have similar or competitive products to the ones which are the subject of their collaborations with us, or relationships with our competitors, which may reduce their interest in developing or selling our product candidates. We may not be able to control public disclosures made by some of our third-party collaborators, which could negatively impact our stock price.

Cancellation of collaborations regarding our product candidates may adversely affect potential economic benefits

Third-party collaboration agreements typically allow the third party to terminate the agreement (or a specific program within an agreement) by providing notice. For example, in July 2017, we were notified by Impax that they were terminating our agreement with respect to ELADUR, and in August 2017, we mutually agreed with Zogenix to terminate our agreement with respect to Relday. In both instances, the product rights reverted to us. Sandoz also has the right to terminate our agreement with them for commercialization of POSIMIR after a specified notice period.  If there have been payments under such agreements that are being recognized over time, such as the $20 million up-front payment received from Sandoz, termination of such agreements (or programs) can lead to a near-term increase in our reported revenues resulting from the immediate recognition of the balance of such payments. Termination deprives us of potential future economic benefits under such agreements, and may make it more difficult to enter into agreements with other third parties for use of the assets that were subject to the terminated agreement. Termination of our agreements with Sandoz, Pain Therapeutics, Santen or Orient Pharma could have similar effects.  

Our revenues depend on collaboration agreements with other companies. If we are unable to enter into new agreements or meet our obligations or manage our relationships with our collaborators under these agreements our revenues may decrease. Acquisitions of our collaborators can be disruptive

Our revenues are based to a significant extent on collaborative arrangements with third parties, pursuant to which we receive payments based on our performance of research and development activities set forth in these agreements. We have seen recent declines in revenues associated with our existing collaboration agreements, which

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reflect the current development stage of the product candidates subject to those agreements, and our collaborator’s decreased needs for our services. We do not expect our collaboration revenues to increase unless we enter into new collaboration agreements, and there can be no assurance that we will do so. Even if we enter into new collaboration agreements, we may not be able to fulfill our obligations or attain milestones set forth in any specific agreement, which could cause our revenues to fluctuate or be less than anticipated and may expose us to liability for contractual breach. In addition, these agreements may require us to devote significant time and resources to communicating with and managing our relationships with such collaborators and resolving possible issues of contractual interpretation which may detract from time our management would otherwise devote to managing our operations. Such agreements are generally complex and contain provisions that could give rise to legal disputes, including potential disputes concerning ownership of intellectual property under collaborations. Such disputes can delay or prevent the development of potential new product candidates, or can lead to lengthy, expensive litigation or arbitration. In general, our collaboration agreements, including our agreements with Sandoz with respect to POSIMIR, Pain Therapeutics with respect to REMOXY ER, Orient Pharma with respect to ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER, and Santen with respect to an ophthalmic product may be terminated by the other party at will or upon specified conditions including, for example, if we fail to satisfy specified performance milestones or if we breach the terms of the agreement. Acquisitions of our collaborators can lead to turnover of program staff, a review of development programs and strategies by the acquirer, and other events that can disrupt a program, resulting in program delays or discontinuations.

If we do not enter into new collaboration agreements, and if any of our collaborative agreements are terminated or delayed, our anticipated revenues may be reduced or not materialize, and our products in development related to those agreements may not be commercialized.

Our cash flows are likely to differ from our reported revenues

Our revenues will likely differ from our cash flows from revenue-generating activities. Upfront payments received upon execution of collaborative agreements are recorded as deferred revenue and generally recognized on a straight-line basis over the period of our continuing involvement with the third-party collaborator pursuant to the applicable agreement. The period of continuing involvement may also be revised on a prospective basis. As of December 31, 2017, we had $1.8 million of deferred revenue which will be recognized in future periods and may cause our reported revenues to be greater than cash flows from our ongoing revenue-generating activities.

Our revenues also depend on milestone payments based on achievements by our third-party collaborators. Failure of such collaborators to attain such milestones would result in our not receiving additional revenues

In addition to payments based on our performance of research and development activities, our revenues also depend on the attainment of milestones set forth in our collaboration agreements. Such milestones are typically related to development activities or sales accomplishments. While our involvement is generally necessary to the achievement of development-based milestones, the performance of our third-party collaborators is also generally required to achieve those milestones, and in the case of our agreement with Indivior, Indivior is solely responsible for the regulatory milestone as well. Under our third-party collaborative agreements, our third party collaborators will take the lead in commercialization activities and we are typically not involved in the achievement of sales-based milestones. Therefore, we are even more dependent upon the performance of our third-party collaborators in achieving sales-based milestones. To the extent we and our third-party collaborators do not achieve such development-based milestones or our third-party collaborators do not achieve sales-based milestones, we will not receive the associated revenues, which could harm our financial condition and may cause us to defer or cut-back development activities or forego the exploitation of opportunities in certain geographic territories, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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Our business strategy includes the entry into additional collaborative agreements. We may not be able to enter into additional collaborative agreements or may not be able to negotiate commercially acceptable terms for these agreements

Our current business strategy includes the entry into additional collaborative agreements for the development and commercialization of our pharmaceutical product candidates, including DUR-928, ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER in markets not already licensed to Orient Pharma, including the United States and Europe, and others. The negotiation and consummation of these types of agreements typically involve simultaneous discussions with multiple potential collaborators and require significant time and resources from our officers, business development, legal, and research and development staff. In addition, in attracting the attention of pharmaceutical and biotechnology company collaborators, we compete with numerous other third parties with product opportunities as well as the collaborators’ own internal product opportunities. We may not be able to consummate additional collaborative agreements, or we may not be able to negotiate commercially acceptable terms for these agreements. If we do not consummate additional collaborative agreements, we may have to consume money more rapidly on our product development efforts, defer development activities or forego the exploitation of certain geographic territories, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We will require and may have difficulty raising needed capital in the future

Our business currently does not generate sufficient revenues to meet our capital requirements and we do not expect that it will do so in the near future. We have expended and will continue to expend substantial funds to complete the research, development and clinical testing of our pharmaceutical product candidates. We will require additional funds for these purposes, to establish additional clinical- and commercial-scale manufacturing arrangements and facilities, and to provide for the marketing and distribution of our product candidates. Additional funds may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. If adequate funds are unavailable from operations or additional sources of financing, we may have to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate one or more of our research or development programs which would materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We believe that our cash, cash equivalents and investments will be adequate to satisfy our capital needs for at least the next 12 months. However, our actual capital requirements will depend on many factors, including:

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We may consume available resources more rapidly than currently anticipated, resulting in the need for additional funding. We may seek to raise additional funds through equity or debt financings, convertible debt financings, collaborative arrangements with corporate collaborators or other sources, which may be dilutive to existing stockholders and may cause the price of our common stock to decline. In addition, in the event that additional funds are obtained through arrangements with collaborators or other sources, we may have to relinquish rights to some of our technologies or pharmaceutical product candidates that we would otherwise seek to develop or commercialize ourselves. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to significantly reduce or refocus our product development efforts, resulting in delays in generating future product revenue.

We and our third-party collaborators may not be able to manufacture sufficient quantities of our pharmaceutical product candidates and components to support the clinical and commercial requirements of our collaborators and ourselves at an acceptable cost or in compliance with applicable government regulations, and we have limited manufacturing experience

We or our third-party collaborators to whom we have assigned such responsibility must manufacture our pharmaceutical product candidates and components in clinical and commercial quantities, either directly or through third parties, in compliance with regulatory requirements and at an acceptable cost. The manufacturing processes associated with our product candidates are complex. We and our third-party collaborators, where relevant, have not yet completed development of the manufacturing process for any product candidates or components, including POSIMIR, REMOXY ER and DUR-928. If we and our third-party collaborators, where relevant, fail to timely complete the development of the manufacturing process for our product candidates, we and our third-party collaborators, where relevant, will not be able to timely produce product for clinical trials and commercialization of our product candidates. We have also committed to manufacture and supply product candidates or components under a number of our collaborative agreements with third-party companies. We have limited experience manufacturing pharmaceutical products, and we may not be able to timely accomplish these tasks. If we and our third-party collaborators, where relevant, fail to develop manufacturing processes to permit us to manufacture a product candidate or component at an acceptable cost, then we and our third-party collaborators may not be able to commercialize that product candidate or we may be in breach of our supply obligations to our third-party collaborators.

Our manufacturing facility in Cupertino is a multi-disciplinary site that we have used to manufacture only research and clinical supplies of several of our pharmaceutical product candidates, including POSIMIR and REMOXY ER. If we experience delays or technical difficulties in scaling up the manufacturing of our product candidates, it could result in delays or added cost in our development programs. We have not manufactured commercial quantities of any of our product candidates. In the future, we intend to develop additional manufacturing capabilities for our product candidates and components to meet our demands and those of our third-party collaborators by contracting with third-party manufacturers and by potentially constructing additional manufacturing space at our facilities in California and Alabama. We have limited experience building and validating manufacturing facilities, and we may not be able to accomplish these tasks in a timely or cost effective manner.

If we and our third-party collaborators, where relevant, are unable to manufacture our pharmaceutical product candidates or components in a timely manner or at an acceptable cost, quality or performance level, and are unable to attain and maintain compliance with applicable regulations, the clinical trials and the commercial sale of our product candidates and those of our third-party collaborators could be delayed. Additionally, we may need to alter our facility design or manufacturing processes, install additional equipment or do additional construction or testing in order to meet regulatory requirements, optimize the production process, increase efficiencies or production capacity or for other reasons, which may result in additional cost to us or delay production of product needed for the clinical trials and commercial launch of our product candidates and those of our third-party collaborators.

We have entered into a commercial manufacturing and packaging agreement with a third party manufacturer for future supply of POSIMIR. This third party is our sole source for the drug product required for development and commercialization of this drug candidate. There may be technical risks associated with establishing an alternative commercial manufacturer that could entail delays in supply, quality issues or delays in the possible regulatory approval of POSIMIR. Furthermore, we and our contract manufacturer may also need or choose to subcontract with additional third-party contractors to perform manufacturing steps of POSIMIR or supply required components for POSIMIR. Where third party contractors perform manufacturing services for us, we will be subject to the schedule,

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expertise and performance of third parties as well as incur significant additional costs. Failure of third parties to perform their obligations could adversely affect our operations, development timeline and financial results. If we proceed with the development of POSIMIR, we expect to put in place in the future second source supply arrangements, which may be costly and time consuming.

We have entered into contract manufacturing agreements with multiple vendors for DUR-928. There can be no assurance that we will receive sufficient quantities of DUR-928 to commence and conduct the clinical trials we are planning, and delays in supply could delay development of DUR-928.

If we or our third-party collaborators cannot manufacture our pharmaceutical product candidates or components in time to meet the clinical or commercial requirements of our collaborators or ourselves or at an acceptable cost, our operating results will be harmed.

Failure to comply with ongoing governmental regulations for our pharmaceutical product candidates could materially harm our business in the future

Marketing or promoting a drug is subject to very strict controls. Furthermore, clearance or approval may entail ongoing requirements for post-marketing studies. The manufacture and marketing of drugs are subject to continuing FDA and foreign regulatory review and requirements that we update our regulatory filings. Later discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, manufacturer or facility, or our failure to update regulatory files, may result in restrictions, including withdrawal of the product from the market. Any of the following or other similar events, if they were to occur, could delay or preclude us from further developing, marketing or realizing full commercial use of our product candidates, which in turn would materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations:

Manufacturers of drugs must comply with the applicable FDA good manufacturing practice regulations, which include production design controls, testing, quality control and quality assurance requirements as well as the corresponding maintenance of records and documentation. Compliance with current good manufacturing practices regulations is difficult and costly. Manufacturing facilities are subject to ongoing periodic inspection by the FDA and corresponding state agencies, including unannounced inspections, and must be licensed before they can be used for the commercial manufacture of our development products. We and/or our present or future suppliers and distributors may be unable to comply with the applicable good manufacturing practice regulations and other FDA regulatory requirements. We have not been subject to a good manufacturing regulation inspection by the FDA relating to our product candidates. If we, our third-party collaborators or our respective suppliers do not achieve compliance for our product candidates we or they manufacture, the FDA may refuse or withdraw marketing clearance or require product recall, which may cause interruptions or delays in the manufacture and sale of our product candidates.

We have a history of operating losses, expect to continue to have losses in the future and may never achieve or maintain profitability

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception in 1998 and, as of December 31, 2017, had an accumulated deficit of approximately $443.8 million. We expect to continue to incur significant operating losses over the next several years as we continue to incur significant costs for research and development, clinical trials, manufacturing, sales, and general and administrative functions. Our ability to achieve profitability depends upon our ability, alone or with others, to successfully complete the development of our proposed product candidates, obtain the required regulatory clearances, and manufacture and market our proposed product candidates. Development of pharmaceutical product candidates is costly and requires significant investment. In addition, we may choose to license from third parties either additional drug delivery platform technology or rights to particular drugs or other appropriate technology for use in our product candidates. The license fees for these technologies or rights would increase the costs of our product candidates.

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To date, we have not generated significant revenue from the commercial sale of our pharmaceutical product candidates and do not expect to do so in the near future. Our current revenues are from the ALZET product line, from the LACTEL product line and from certain excipient sales, and from payments under collaborative research and development agreements with third parties. We do not expect our product revenues to increase significantly in the near future, and we do not expect that collaborative research and development revenues will exceed our actual operating expenses. We do not anticipate meaningful revenues to derive from the commercialization and marketing of our product candidates in development in the near future, and therefore do not expect to generate sufficient revenues to cover expenses or achieve profitability in the near future.

We may develop our own sales force and commercial group to market future products but we have limited sales and marketing experience with respect to pharmaceuticals and may not be able to do so effectively

We have a small sales and marketing group focused on our ALZET and LACTEL product lines. We may choose to develop our own sales force and commercial group to market products that we may develop in the future. Developing a sales force and commercial group will require substantial expenditures and the hiring of qualified personnel. We have limited sales and marketing experience, and may not be able to effectively recruit, train or retain sales personnel. If we are not able to put in place an appropriate sales force and commercial group for our products in development, we may not be able to effectively launch these products. We may not be able to effectively sell our product candidates, if approved, and our failure to do so could limit or materially harm our business.

We and our third-party collaborators may not sell our product candidates effectively

We and our third-party collaborators compete with many other companies that currently have extensive and well-funded marketing and sales operations. Our marketing and sales efforts and those of our third-party collaborators may be unable to compete successfully against these other companies. We and our third-party collaborators, if relevant, may be unable to establish a sufficient sales and marketing organization on a timely basis, if at all. We and our third-party collaborators, if relevant, may be unable to engage qualified distributors. Even if engaged, these distributors may:

The failure of us or our third-party collaborators to effectively develop, gain regulatory approval for, sell, manufacture and market our product candidates will hurt our business, prospects and financial results.

We rely heavily on third parties to support development, clinical testing and manufacturing of our product candidates

We rely on third-party contract research organizations, consultants, service providers and suppliers to provide critical services to support development, clinical testing, and manufacturing of our product candidates. For example, we currently depend on third-party vendors to manage and monitor our clinical trials and to perform critical manufacturing steps for our product candidates. These third parties may not execute their responsibilities and tasks competently in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or in a timely fashion. We rely on third-parties to manufacture or perform manufacturing steps relating to our product candidates or components. We anticipate that we will continue to rely on these and other third-party contractors to support development, clinical testing, and manufacturing of our product candidates. Failure of these contractors to provide the required services in a competent or timely manner or on reasonable commercial terms could materially delay the development and approval of our development products, increase our expenses and materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Key components of our product candidates are provided by limited numbers of suppliers, and supply shortages or loss of these suppliers could result in interruptions in supply or increased costs

Certain components and drug substances used in our product candidates, including POSIMIR, DUR-928 and REMOXY ER, are currently purchased from a single or a limited number of outside sources. In particular, Eastman Chemical is the sole supplier, pursuant to a supply agreement entered into in December 2005, of our requirements of sucrose acetate isobutyrate, a necessary component of POSIMIR, REMOXY ER and certain other pharmaceutical product candidates we have under development, and a third party manufacturer is our sole supplier for future clinical and commercial supplies of POSIMIR. The reliance on a sole or limited number of suppliers could result in:

We have supply agreements in place for certain components of our pharmaceutical product candidates, but do not have in place long term supply agreements with respect to all of the components of any of our product candidates. Therefore the supply of a particular component could be terminated at any time without penalty to the supplier. In addition, we may not be able to procure required components or drugs from third-party suppliers at a quantity, quality and cost acceptable to us. Any interruption in the supply of single source components could cause us to seek alternative sources of supply or manufacture these components internally. Furthermore, in some cases, we are relying on our third-party collaborators to procure supply of necessary components. If the supply of any components for our product candidates is interrupted, components from alternative suppliers may not be available in sufficient volumes or at acceptable quality levels within required timeframes, if at all, to meet our needs or those of our third-party collaborators. This could delay our ability to complete clinical trials and obtain approval for commercialization and marketing of our product candidates, causing us to lose sales, incur additional costs, delay new product introductions and could harm our reputation.

If we are unable to adequately protect, maintain or enforce our intellectual property rights or secure rights to third-party patents, we may lose valuable assets, experience reduced market share or incur costly litigation to protect our rights or our third-party collaborators may choose to terminate their agreements with us

Our ability to commercially exploit our products will depend significantly on our ability to obtain and maintain patents, maintain trade secret protection and operate without infringing the proprietary rights of others.

As of March 2, 2018, we owned or exclusively in-licensed over 45 unexpired issued U.S. patents and over 410 unexpired issued foreign patents (which include granted European patent rights that have been validated in various EU member states). In addition, we have over 35 pending U.S. patent applications and over 100 foreign applications pending in Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada and other countries.

The patent status of our most advanced drug candidates, REMOXY ER and POSIMIR is as follows:

Our Epigenetic Regulator Program includes ten in-licensed patent families and one patent family solely owned by us. Two patent families each include two granted patents expiring in at least 2026 and 2032, respectively. The other patent families include pending patent applications, which if granted, could result in patents expiring in 2033, 2034, 2035, 2037, 2037, 2037, 2038, 2038 and 2039, respectively, plus any eligible patent term adjustments and extensions. Of the ten patent families covering DUR-928 and/or other molecules in the Epigenetic Regulator Program, two were only filed in the United States, and the other nine have been filed or likely will be filed both in the U.S. and internationally. Since DUR-928 is an endogenous small molecule, patent claims directed to DUR-928 composition of matter may be more difficult to maintain or enforce in the United States under Myriad Genetics and other recent court decisions. One of the U.S. patents issued before Myriad Genetics, and three of the DUR-928 U.S. patents issued after Myriad Genetics. The granted claims in the U.S. include both composition of matter and method of treatment claims. There can be no assurance that the pending patent applications will be granted. Further, there can be no assurance that VCU will not attempt to terminate their license to us, which termination would result in the loss of our rights to these patent families.

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In the United States, our REMOXY ER patent portfolio includes four patent families. Three patent families include granted patents expiring in at least 2025, 2031, and 2034, respectively. The patent family providing protection until at least 2025 includes eleven granted patents. The patent family providing protection until at least 2031 includes two granted patents. The patent family providing protection until at least 2034 includes three granted patents. The fourth patent family includes a pending patent application, which if granted, could result in a patent expiring in 2026, plus any eligible patent term adjustments and extensions. We currently have pending U.S. applications for each of these four patent families. There can be no assurance that the pending patent applications will be granted. In Europe, REMOXY ER is covered by five granted patents with two expiring in 2023 and three expiring in 2026, plus any eligible patent term extensions.

In the United States, POSIMIR is covered by two patent families. One patent family includes granted patents expiring in at least 2025. Another patent family includes a pending patent application, which if granted, could result in a patent expiring in 2026, plus any eligible patent term adjustments and extensions. In Europe, POSIMIR is covered by six granted patents with three expiring in 2025 and three expiring in 2026, plus any eligible patent term extensions.

The patent positions of pharmaceutical companies, including ours, are uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. In addition, the coverage claimed in a patent application can be significantly reduced before the patent is issued. Consequently, our patent applications or those that are licensed to us may not issue into patents, and any issued patents may not provide protection against competitive technologies or may be held invalid if challenged. Our competitors may also independently develop products similar to ours or design around or otherwise circumvent patents issued to us or licensed by us. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries may not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as U.S. law.

The patent laws of the United States have recently undergone changes through court decisions which may have significant impact on us and our industry. Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts with respect to the standards of patentability, enforceability, availability of injunctive relief and damages may make it more difficult for us to procure, maintain and enforce patents. In addition, the America Invents Act was signed into law in September 2011, which among other changes to the U.S. patent laws, changed patent priority from “first to invent” to “first to file,” implemented a post-grant opposition system for patents and provided a prior user defense to infringement. These judicial and legislative changes have introduced significant uncertainty in the patent law landscape and may potentially negatively impact our ability to procure, maintain and enforce patents to provide exclusivity for our products.

We also rely upon trade secrets, technical know-how and continuing technological innovation to develop and maintain our competitive position. We require our employees, consultants, advisors and collaborators to execute appropriate confidentiality and assignment-of-inventions agreements with us. These agreements typically provide that all materials and confidential information developed or made known to the individual during the course of the individual’s relationship with us is to be kept confidential and not disclosed to third parties except in specific circumstances, and that all inventions arising out of the individual’s relationship with us will be our exclusive property. These agreements may be breached, and in some instances, we may not have an appropriate remedy available for breach of the agreements. Furthermore, our competitors may independently develop substantially equivalent proprietary information and techniques, reverse engineer our information and techniques, or otherwise gain access to our proprietary technology.

We may be unable to meaningfully protect our rights in trade secrets, technical know-how and other non-patented technology. We may have to resort to litigation to protect our intellectual property rights, or to determine their scope, validity or enforceability. In addition, interference, derivation, post-grant oppositions, and similar proceedings may be necessary to determine rights to inventions in our patents and patent applications. Enforcing or defending our proprietary rights is expensive, could cause diversion of our resources and may be unsuccessful. Any failure to enforce or protect our rights could cause us to lose the ability to exclude others from using our technology to develop or sell competing products.

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Our collaboration agreements may depend on our intellectual property

We are party to collaborative agreements with Sandoz, Pain Therapeutics, Orient Pharma and Santen among others. Our third-party collaborators have entered into these agreements based on the exclusivity that our intellectual property rights confer on the products being developed. The loss or diminution of our intellectual property rights could result in a decision by our third-party collaborators to terminate their agreements with us. In addition, these agreements are generally complex and contain provisions that could give rise to legal disputes, including potential disputes concerning ownership of intellectual property and data under collaborations. Such disputes can lead to lengthy, expensive litigation or arbitration requiring us to devote management time and resources to such dispute which we would otherwise spend on our business. To the extent that our agreements call for future royalties to be paid conditional on our having patents covering the royalty-bearing subject matter, the decision by the Supreme Court in the case of MedImmune v. Genentech could encourage our licensees to challenge the validity of our patents and thereby seek to avoid future royalty obligations without losing the benefit of their license. Should they be successful in such a challenge, our ability to collect future royalties could be substantially diminished.

We may be sued by third parties claiming that our product candidates infringe on their intellectual property rights, particularly because there is substantial uncertainty about the validity and breadth of medical patents

We or our collaborators may be exposed to future litigation by third parties based on claims that our product candidates or activities infringe the intellectual property rights of others or that we or our collaborators have misappropriated the trade secrets of others. This risk is exacerbated by the fact that the validity and breadth of claims covered in medical technology patents and the breadth and scope of trade secret protection involve complex legal and factual questions for which important legal principles are unresolved. Any litigation or claims against us or our collaborators, whether or not valid, could result in substantial costs, could place a significant strain on our financial resources and could harm our reputation. We also may not have sufficient funds to litigate against parties with substantially greater resources. In addition, pursuant to our collaborative agreements, we have provided our collaborators with the right, under specified circumstances, to defend against any claims of infringement of the third party intellectual property rights, and such collaborators may not defend against such claims adequately or in the manner that we would do ourselves. Intellectual property litigation or claims could force us or our collaborators to do one or more of the following, any of which could harm our business or financial results:

Technologies and businesses which we acquire or license may be difficult to integrate, disrupt our business, dilute stockholder value or divert management attention

We may acquire technologies, products or businesses to broaden the scope of our existing and planned product lines and technologies. Future acquisitions expose us to:

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Acquisitions may also result in the issuance of dilutive equity securities, the incurrence or assumption of debt or additional expenses associated with the amortization of acquired intangible assets or potential businesses. Acquisitions may not generate any additional revenue or provide any benefit to our business.

Some of our pharmaceutical product candidates contain controlled substances, the making, use, sale, importation and distribution of which are subject to regulation by state, federal and foreign law enforcement and other regulatory agencies

Some of our product candidates currently under development contain, and our products in the future may contain, controlled substances which are subject to state, federal and foreign laws and regulations regarding their manufacture, use, sale, importation and distribution. REMOXY ER, and certain other product candidates we may develop contain active ingredients which are classified as controlled substances under the regulations of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. For our product candidates containing controlled substances, we and our suppliers, manufacturers, contractors, customers and distributors are required to obtain and maintain applicable registrations from state, federal and foreign law enforcement and regulatory agencies and comply with state, federal and foreign laws and regulations regarding the manufacture, use, sale, importation and distribution of controlled substances. These regulations are extensive and include regulations governing manufacturing, labeling, packaging, testing, dispensing, production and procurement quotas, record keeping, reporting, handling, shipment and disposal. These regulations increase the personnel needs and the expense associated with development and commercialization of drug candidates including controlled substances. Failure to obtain and maintain required registrations or comply with any applicable regulations could delay or preclude us from developing and commercializing our product candidates containing controlled substances and subject us to enforcement action. In addition, because of their restrictive nature, these regulations could limit our commercialization of our product candidates containing controlled substances. In particular, among other things, there is a risk that these regulations may interfere with the supply of the drugs used in our clinical trials, and in the future, our ability to produce and distribute our products in the volume needed to meet commercial demand.

Write-offs related to the impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, inventories and other non-cash charges, as well as stock-based compensation expenses may adversely impact or delay our profitability

We may incur significant non-cash charges related to impairment write-downs of our long-lived assets, including goodwill. We are required to perform periodic impairment reviews of our goodwill at least annually. The carrying value of goodwill on our balance sheet was $6.4 million at December 31, 2017. To the extent these reviews conclude that the expected future cash flows generated from our business activities are not sufficient to recover the cost of our long-lived assets, we will be required to measure and record an impairment charge to write-down these assets to their realizable values. We completed our last review during the fourth quarter of 2017 and determined that goodwill was not impaired as of December 31, 2017. However, there can be no assurance that upon completion of subsequent reviews a material impairment charge will not be recorded. If future periodic reviews determine that our assets are impaired and a write-down is required, it will adversely impact or delay our profitability.

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Inventories, in part, include certain excipients that are sold to customers and included in products in development. These inventories are capitalized based on management’s judgment of probable sale prior to their expiration date which in turn is primarily based on management’s internal estimates. The valuation of inventory requires us to estimate the value of inventory that may become expired prior to use. We may be required to expense previously capitalized inventory costs upon a change in our judgment, due to, among other potential factors, a denial or delay of approval of a product by the necessary regulatory bodies, changes in product development timelines, or other information that suggests that the inventory will not be saleable. In addition, these circumstances may cause us to record a liability related to minimum purchase agreements that we have in place for raw materials. For example, we recorded charges to cost of goods sold of approximately $926,000, of which approximately $426,000 related to the write-down of the cost basis of inventory and approximately $500,000 related to the prepaid inventory for the minimum purchase commitment for an excipient in the year ended December 31, 2016 as a result of a change in the forecasted demand for the excipients after Pain Therapeutics received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA on its resubmission of the NDA for REMOXY ER. In addition, during the year ended December 31, 2017, we recorded charges to cost of goods sold of approximately $2.0 million, of which approximately $503,000 related to the write-down of the cost basis of inventory on hand, $500,000 related to the prepaid inventory for the minimum purchase commitment for the excipient, and $1.0 million related to the recognition of our remaining minimum purchase commitment for the same excipient after we announced that PERSIST, the Phase 3 clinical trial for POSIMIR, did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint.

Global credit and financial market conditions could negatively impact the value of our current portfolio of cash equivalents, short-term investments or long-term investments and our ability to meet our financing objectives

Our cash and cash equivalents are maintained in highly liquid investments with remaining maturities of 90 days or less at the time of purchase. Our short-term investments consist primarily of readily marketable debt securities with original maturities of greater than 90 days from the date of purchase but remaining maturities of less than one year from the balance sheet date. Our long-term investments consist primarily of readily marketable debt securities with maturities in one year or beyond from the balance sheet date. While, as of the date of this filing, we are not aware of any downgrades, material losses, or other significant deterioration in the fair value of our cash equivalents, short-term investments or long-term investments since December 31, 2017, no assurance can be given that deterioration in conditions of the global credit and financial markets would not negatively impact our current portfolio of cash equivalents, short-term investments or long-term investments or our ability to meet our financing objectives.

We depend upon key personnel who may terminate their employment with us at any time, and we may need to hire additional qualified personnel

Our success will depend to a significant degree upon the continued services of key management, technical and scientific personnel. In addition, our success will depend on our ability to attract and retain other highly skilled personnel, particularly as we develop and expand our Epigenetic Regulator Program. Competition for qualified personnel is intense, and the process of hiring and integrating such qualified personnel is often lengthy. We may be unable to recruit such personnel on a timely basis, if at all. Our management and other employees may voluntarily terminate their employment with us at any time. The loss of the services of key personnel, or the inability to attract and retain additional qualified personnel, could result in delays to product development or approval, loss of sales and diversion of management resources.

We may not successfully manage our company through varying business cycles

Our success will depend on properly sizing our company through growth and contraction cycles caused in part by changing business conditions, which places a significant strain on our management and on our administrative, operational and financial resources. To manage through such cycles, we must expand or contract our facilities, our operational, financial and management systems and our personnel. If we were unable to manage growth and contractions effectively our business would be harmed.

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Our business involves environmental risks and risks related to handling regulated substances

In connection with our research and development activities and our manufacture of materials and pharmaceutical product candidates, we are subject to federal, state and local laws, rules, regulations and policies governing the use, generation, manufacture, storage, air emission, effluent discharge, handling and disposal of certain materials, biological specimens and wastes. Although we believe that we have complied with the applicable laws, regulations and policies in all material respects and have not been required to correct any material noncompliance, we may be required to incur significant costs to comply with environmental and health and safety regulations in the future. Our research and development involve the use, generation and disposal of hazardous materials, including but not limited to certain hazardous chemicals, solvents, agents and biohazardous materials. The extent of our use, generation and disposal of such substances has increased substantially since we started manufacturing and selling biodegradable polymers. Although we believe that our safety procedures for storing, handling and disposing of such materials comply with the standards prescribed by state and federal regulations, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of accidental contamination or injury from these materials. We currently contract with third parties to dispose of these substances generated by us, and we rely on these third parties to properly dispose of these substances in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. If these third parties do not properly dispose of these substances in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, we may be subject to legal action by governmental agencies or private parties for improper disposal of these substances. The costs of defending such actions and the potential liability resulting from such actions are often very large. In the event we are subject to such legal action or we otherwise fail to comply with applicable laws and regulations governing the use, generation and disposal of hazardous materials and chemicals, we could be held liable for any damages that result, and any such liability could exceed our resources.

Cyber-attacks or other failures in telecommunications or information technology systems could result in information theft, data corruption and significant disruption of our business operations

We utilize information technology, systems and networks to process, transmit and store electronic information in connection with our business activities. As use of digital technologies has increased, cyber incidents, including deliberate attacks and attempts to gain unauthorized access to computer systems and networks, have increased in frequency and sophistication. These threats pose a risk to the security of our systems and networks and the confidentiality, availability and integrity of our data, and may cause a disruption in our operations, harm our reputation and increase our stock trading risk. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in preventing cyber-attacks or successfully mitigating their effects. Similarly, there can be no assurance that our third-party collaborators, distributors and other contractors and consultants will be successful in protecting our clinical and other data that is stored on their systems. Any cyberattack or destruction or loss of data could have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects. In addition, we may suffer reputational harm or face litigation or adverse regulatory action as a result of cyber-attacks or other data security breaches and may incur significant additional expense to implement further data protection measures.

Our corporate headquarters, certain manufacturing facilities and personnel are located in a geographical area that is seismically active

Our corporate headquarters, certain manufacturing facilities and personnel are located in a geographical area that is known to be seismically active and prone to earthquakes. Should such a natural disaster occur, our ability to conduct our business could be severely restricted, and our business and assets, including the results of our research, development and manufacturing efforts, could be destroyed.

Risks Related To Our Industry

The market for our pharmaceutical product candidates is rapidly changing and competitive, and new products or technologies developed by others could impair our ability to grow our business and remain competitive

The pharmaceutical industry is subject to rapid and substantial technological change. Developments by others may render our product candidates under development or technologies noncompetitive or obsolete, or we may be unable to keep pace with technological developments or other market factors. Technological competition in the industry from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities, governmental entities and others diversifying into the field is intense and is expected to increase.

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We may face competition from other companies in numerous industries including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and drug delivery. Competition for DUR-928, if approved, will depend on the specific indications for which DUR-928 is approved. Intercept, Gilead, Shire, Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Galectin Therapeutics, Genfit, Pfizer, Roche, Galmed Pharmaceuticals, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Novo Nordisk, Takeda, Vital Therapies, Allergan, Akarna Therapeutics, Inventiva Pharma, Genkyotex, VBL Therapeutics, NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Gemphire Therapeutics, Albireo Pharma, CymaBay Therapeutics, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Viking Therapeutics, CohBar, FALK Pharma, Acorda, Albireo Pharma and others have development plans for products to treat NAFLD/NASH, PSC or other liver diseases. Ischemix, Thrasos Therapeutics, AM-Pharma, Complexa, AbbVie, AlloCure, Quark Pharmaceuticals and others have development plans for products to treat acute kidney injury.  Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Almirall, LEO Pharma, Pfizer, Janssen, Abbvie, Boerhinger-Ingelheim, Amgen, Sandoz, Astra-Zeneca, Valeant, Takeda, Merck, Idera Pharmaceuticals and others have development plans for products to treat psoriasis.

POSIMIR and REMOXY ER, if approved, will compete with currently marketed oral opioids, transdermal opioids, local anesthetic patches, implantable and external infusion pumps which can be used for infusion of opioids and local anesthetics. Products of these types are marketed by Purdue Pharma, AbbVie, Janssen, Actavis, Medtronic, Endo, AstraZeneca, Pernix Therapeutics, Tricumed, Halyard Health, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Pacira, Acorda Therapeutics, Mallinckrodt, Inspirion Delivery Technologies, Mylan, Shire, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Egalet, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Collegium Pharmaceutical and others. Purdue Pharma, Sandoz, Actavis, Collegium Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Elite Pharmaceuticals, Intellipharmaceutics, Egalet, Teva Pharmaceuticals and others have also announced regulatory approval or development plans for abuse deterrent opioid products. RBP-7000, if approved, will compete with currently marketed or approved products by Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, Otsuka, Alkermes, Merck, Allergan, Novartis, and others.  Our ORADUR-ADHD product candidates, if approved, will compete with currently marketed or approved products by Shire, Johnson & Johnson, UCB, Novartis, Noven, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and others.

Numerous companies are applying significant resources and expertise to the problems of drug delivery and several of these are focusing or may focus on delivery of drugs to the intended site of action, including Alkermes, Pacira, Immune Pharmaceuticals, Innocoll, Nektar, Kimberly-Clark, Acorda Therapeutics, Flamel, Alexza, Mallinckrodt, Hospira, Pfizer, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Egalet, Acura, Elite Pharmaceuticals, Phosphagenics, Intellipharmaceutics, Collegium Pharmaceutical, Heron Therapeutics, Charleston Laboratories, Daiichi Sankyo and others. Some of these competitors may be addressing the same therapeutic areas or indications as we are. Our current and potential competitors may succeed in obtaining patent protection or commercializing products before us. Many of these entities have significantly greater research and development capabilities than we do, as well as substantially more marketing, manufacturing, financial and managerial resources. These entities represent significant competition for us. Acquisitions of, or investments in, competing pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies by large corporations could increase such competitors’ financial, marketing, manufacturing and other resources.

We are engaged in the development of novel therapeutic technologies. Our resources are limited and we may experience technical challenges inherent in such novel technologies. Competitors have developed or are in the process of developing technologies that are, or in the future may be, the basis for competitive products. Some of these products may have an entirely different approach or means of accomplishing similar therapeutic effects than our product candidates. Our competitors may develop products that are safer, more effective or less costly than our product candidates and, therefore, present a serious competitive threat to our product offerings.

The widespread acceptance of therapies that are alternatives to ours may limit market acceptance of our product candidates even if commercialized. Chronic and post-operative pain are currently being treated by oral medication, transdermal drug delivery systems, such as drug patches, injectable products and implantable drug delivery devices which will be competitive with our product candidates. These treatments are widely accepted in the medical community and have a long history of use. The established use of these competitive products may limit the potential for our product candidates to receive widespread acceptance if commercialized.

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Our relationships with customers and third-party payers will be subject to applicable anti-kickback, fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations, which could expose us to criminal sanctions, civil penalties, contractual damages, reputational harm and diminished profits and future earnings

Healthcare providers, physicians and third-party payers will play a primary role in the recommendation and prescription of any product candidates for which we obtain marketing approval. Our future arrangements with third-party payers and customers may expose us to broadly applicable fraud and abuse and other healthcare laws and regulations that may constrain the business or financial arrangements and relationships through which we would market, sell and distribute our products. As a pharmaceutical company, even though we do not and may not control referrals of healthcare services or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payers, federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse and patients’ rights are and will be applicable to our business. These regulations include:

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Efforts to ensure that our business arrangements with third parties will comply with applicable healthcare laws and regulations will involve substantial costs. It is possible that governmental authorities will conclude that our business practices may not comply with current or future statutes, regulations or case law involving applicable fraud and abuse or other healthcare laws and regulations. If our operations are found to be in violation of any of these laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. If any physicians or other healthcare providers or entities with whom we expect to do business are found to not be in compliance with applicable laws, they may be subject to criminal, civil or administrative sanctions, including exclusions from government funded healthcare programs.

Healthcare reform measures could hinder or prevent our product candidates’ commercial success. 

In the United States and some non-U.S. jurisdictions, there have been, and we expect there will continue to be, a number of legislative and regulatory changes to the healthcare system that could prevent or delay marketing approval of our product candidates, restrict or regulate post‑approval activities, affect our ability to profitably sell any product candidates for which we obtain marketing and otherwise affect our future revenue and profitability and the future revenue and profitability of our collaborators or potential collaborators.

For example, in March 2010, the Affordable Care Act was enacted in the United States to broaden access to health insurance, reduce or constrain the growth of healthcare spending, enhance remedies against fraud and abuse, add new transparency requirements for healthcare and health insurance industries, impose new taxes and fees on the health industry and impose additional health policy reforms. The law has continued the downward pressure on the pricing of medical items and services, especially under the Medicare program, and increased the industry’s regulatory burdens and operating costs. Among the provisions of the Affordable Care Act of importance to us are the following:

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Since its enactment, there have been judicial and Congressional challenges to certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act, and we expect there will be additional challenges and amendments to the Affordable Care Act in the future. The new Presidential Administration and U.S. Congress will likely continue to seek to modify, repeal, or otherwise invalidate all, or certain provisions of, the Affordable Care Act. It is uncertain the extent to which any such changes may impact our business or financial condition.

In addition, other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. These changes include the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things, resulted in reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year and will remain in effect through 2025; the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years; and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, which, among other things, ended the use of the sustainable growth rate formula and provides for a 0.5% update to physician payment rates for each calendar year through 2019, after which there will be a 0% annual update each year through 2025. More recently, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several Congressional inquiries and proposed bills designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to product pricing, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for pharmaceutical products.

Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly aggressive in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product and medical device pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing. For example, in October 2017, California passed a new law, to become effective in January 2019, which will require transparency from biopharmaceutical companies regarding price increases for prescription drugs. In addition, regional healthcare authorities and individual hospitals are increasingly using bidding procedures to determine what pharmaceutical products and medical devices to purchase and which suppliers will be included in their prescription drug and other healthcare programs.

We expect that the Affordable Care Act, as well as other healthcare reform measures that may be adopted in the future, may result in more rigorous coverage criteria, new payment methodologies and in additional downward pressure on the price that we receive for any approved or cleared product. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare or other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. We cannot predict the likelihood, nature or extent of government regulation that may arise from future legislation or administrative action, either in the United States or abroad. If we are slow or unable to adapt to new requirements or policies, or if we are not able to maintain regulatory compliance, our products and product candidates may lose any regulatory approval that may have been obtained and we may not achieve or sustain profitability, which would adversely affect our business.

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We could be exposed to significant product liability claims which could be time consuming and costly to defend, divert management attention and adversely impact our ability to obtain and maintain insurance coverage

The testing, manufacture, marketing and sale of our product candidates involve an inherent risk that product liability claims will be asserted against us. Although we are insured against such risks up to an annual aggregate limit in connection with clinical trials and commercial sales of our product candidates, our present product liability insurance may be inadequate and may not fully cover the costs of any claim or any ultimate damages we might be required to pay. Product liability claims or other claims related to our product candidates, regardless of their outcome, could require us to spend significant time and money in litigation or to pay significant damages. Any successful product liability claim may prevent us from obtaining adequate product liability insurance in the future on commercially desirable or reasonable terms. In addition, product liability coverage may cease to be available in sufficient amounts or at an acceptable cost. An inability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage at an acceptable cost or otherwise to protect against potential product liability claims could prevent or inhibit the commercialization of our product candidates. A product liability claim could also significantly harm our reputation and delay market acceptance of our product candidates.

Acceptance of our pharmaceutical product candidates in the marketplace is uncertain, and failure to achieve market acceptance will delay our ability to generate or grow revenues

Our future financial performance will depend upon the successful introduction and customer acceptance of our products in research and development, including POSIMIR, DUR-928 and REMOXY ER, if approved. Even if approved for marketing, our product candidates may not achieve market acceptance. The degree of market acceptance will depend upon a number of factors, including:

In addition, market adoption of POSIMIR may depend on what data from clinical studies is included in the product label and market adoption of REMOXY ER may depend on the extent to which the product label includes claims for abuse deterrence, and there can be no assurance as to what the final product labels will contain. Physicians, patients, payers or the medical community in general may be unwilling to accept, utilize or recommend any of our products. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval, commercialize and market our future products when planned and achieve market acceptance, we will not achieve anticipated revenues.

If users of our products are unable to obtain adequate reimbursement from third-party payers, or if new restrictive legislation is adopted, market acceptance of our products may be limited and we may not achieve anticipated revenues

The continuing efforts of government and insurance companies, health maintenance organizations and other payers of healthcare costs to contain or reduce costs of health care may affect our future revenues and profitability, and the future revenues and profitability of our potential customers, suppliers and third-party collaborators and the availability of capital. For example, in certain foreign markets, pricing or profitability of prescription pharmaceuticals is subject to government control. In the United States, recent federal and state government initiatives have been directed at lowering the total cost of health care, and the U.S. Congress and state legislatures will likely continue to focus on health care reform, the cost of prescription pharmaceuticals and on the reform of the Medicare and Medicaid systems. While we cannot predict whether any such legislative or regulatory proposals will be adopted, the announcement or adoption of such proposals could materially harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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The successful commercialization of our product candidates will depend in part on the extent to which appropriate reimbursement levels for the cost of our product candidates and related treatment are obtained by governmental authorities, private health insurers and other organizations, such as HMOs. Third-party payers often limit payments or reimbursement for medical products and services. Also, the trend toward managed health care in the United States and the concurrent growth of organizations such as HMOs, which could control or significantly influence the purchase of health care services and products, as well as legislative proposals to reform health care or reduce government insurance programs, may limit reimbursement or payment for our products. The cost containment measures that health care payers and providers are instituting and the effect of any health care reform could materially harm our ability to operate profitably.

If we or our third-party collaborators are unable to train physicians to use our pharmaceutical product candidates to treat patients’ diseases or medical conditions, we may incur delays in market acceptance of our products

Broad use of our product candidates will require extensive training of numerous physicians on the proper and safe use of our product candidates. The time required to begin and complete training of physicians could delay introduction of our products and adversely affect market acceptance of our products. We or third parties selling our product candidates may be unable to rapidly train physicians in numbers sufficient to generate adequate demand for our product candidates. Any delay in training would materially delay the demand for our product candidates and harm our business and financial results. In addition, we may expend significant funds towards such training before any orders are placed for our products, which would increase our expenses and harm our financial results.

Potential new accounting pronouncements and legislative actions are likely to impact our future financial position or results of operations

Future changes in financial accounting standards may cause adverse, unexpected fluctuations in the timing of the recognition of revenues or expenses and may affect our financial position or results of operations. New pronouncements and varying interpretations of pronouncements have occurred with frequency and may occur in the future and we may make changes in our accounting policies in the future. Compliance with changing regulation of corporate governance and public disclosure may result in additional expenses. Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, new SEC regulations, PCAOB pronouncements and NASDAQ rules, are creating uncertainty for companies such as ours and insurance, accounting and auditing costs are high as a result of this uncertainty and other factors. We are committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and public disclosure. As a result, we intend to invest all reasonably necessary resources to comply with evolving standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.

Risks Related To Our Common Stock

Our stock price has in the past and may in the future not meet the minimum bid price for continued listing on Nasdaq. Our ability to continue operations or to publicly or privately sell equity securities and the liquidity of our common stock could be adversely affected if we are delisted from Nasdaq

On each of January 16, 2013 and December 9, 2014, we received written notification from Nasdaq informing us that because the closing bid price of our common stock was below $1.00 for 30 consecutive trading days, our shares no longer complied with the minimum closing bid price requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Market under Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5450(a)(1). Each time, we were given a period of 180 days from the date of the notification to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s listing requirements by having the closing bid price of our common stock listed on Nasdaq be at least $1.00 for at least 10 consecutive trading days.

While we regained compliance within the applicable time periods as of February 1, 2013 and March 6, 2015, respectively, if our shares again no longer comply with the minimum closing bid price requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Market under Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5450(a)(1) and we do not regain compliance within the applicable 180-day time period, we may transfer our common stock listing to The Nasdaq Capital Market, provided that the Company (i) meets the applicable market value of publicly held shares requirement for continued listing and all other applicable requirements for initial listing on The Nasdaq Capital Market (except for the closing

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bid price requirement) based on the Company’s most recent public filings and market information and (ii) notifies Nasdaq of its intent to cure this deficiency. Following a transfer to The Nasdaq Capital Market, the Company would be afforded the remainder of an additional 180 calendar day grace period in order to regain compliance with the minimum closing bid price requirement of $1.00 per share under The Nasdaq Capital Market, unless it does not appear to Nasdaq that it would be possible for the Company to cure the deficiency.

If compliance is not demonstrated within the applicable compliance period, Nasdaq will notify the Company that its securities will be subject to delisting. The Company may appeal Nasdaq’s determination to delist its securities to a Hearings Panel. During any appeal process, shares of the Company’s common stock would continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market or Nasdaq Capital Market, as applicable.

There can be no assurance that we will maintain compliance with the requirements for listing our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market or if we were not in compliance, that our common stock would be eligible for transfer to the Nasdaq Capital Market and remain in compliance with the requirements for listing on that market. Delisting from Nasdaq would constitute an event of default under our loan facility with Oxford, entitling Oxford to accelerate our obligations under such facility, among other actions. Under such circumstances, we could be required to renegotiate the repayment terms of our loan facility, on terms which would not be favorable to the Company as our current terms, or we could be required to take other actions, such as discontinuing some or all of our operations, selling assets, or other action. Delisting could also adversely affect our ability to raise additional financing through the public or private sale of equity securities, would significantly affect the ability of investors to trade our securities and would negatively affect the value and liquidity of our common stock. Delisting could also have other negative results, including the potential loss of confidence by employees, the loss of institutional investor interest and fewer business development opportunities.

Our operating history makes evaluating our stock difficult

Our quarterly and annual results of operations have historically fluctuated and we expect will continue to fluctuate for the foreseeable future. We believe that period-to-period comparisons of our operating results should not be relied upon as predictive of future performance. Our prospects must be considered in light of the risks, expenses and difficulties encountered by companies with no approved pharmaceutical products, particularly companies in new and rapidly evolving markets such as pharmaceuticals, drug delivery and biotechnology. To address these risks, we must, among other things, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidates, which may not occur. We may not be successful in addressing these risks and difficulties. We may require additional funds to complete the development of our product candidates and to fund operating losses to be incurred in the next several years.

Investors may experience substantial dilution of their investment

Investors may experience dilution of their investment if we raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities or convertible debt securities or grant additional stock options to employees and consultants. In November 2015, we filed a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 with the SEC that allows us to offer up to $125 million of securities from time to time in one or more public offerings of our common stock. In addition, in November 2015, we entered into a Controlled Equity Offering sales agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald, under which we may sell, subject to certain limitations, up to $40 million of common stock through Cantor Fitzgerald, acting as agent. In April 2016, we completed an underwritten public offering in which we raised net proceeds of $16.1 million (after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses) through the sale of an aggregate of approximately 13.8 million shares of our common stock pursuant to an effective registration statement at a price to the public of $1.25 per share. In 2016, we raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $7.6 million from the sale of approximately 5.2 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $1.50 per share. In 2017, we raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $12.0 million from the sale of approximately 8.9 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $1.39 per share.   Between January 1, 2018 and March 2, 2018, we raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $2.8 million from the sale of approximately 2.5 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $1.17 per share. As of March 2, 2018, we had up to approximately $14.9 million of common stock available for sale under the Controlled Equity Offering program and approximately $67.8 million of

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common stock available for sale under the shelf registration statement. Any additional sales in the public market of our common stock, under the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald or otherwise under the shelf registration statement, could adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock.

The price of our common stock may be volatile

The stock markets in general, and the markets for pharmaceutical stocks in particular, have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.

Price declines in our common stock could result from general market and economic conditions and a variety of other factors, including:

The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to factors which are beyond our control. The stock market in general has recently experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations. In addition, the market prices of securities of technology and pharmaceutical companies have also been extremely volatile, and have experienced fluctuations that often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. These broad market fluctuations could result in extreme fluctuations in the price of our common stock, which could cause a decline in the value of our common stock.

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In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a particular company’s securities, litigation has often been brought against that company. If litigation of this type is brought against us, it could be extremely expensive and divert management’s attention and our company’s resources.

We have broad discretion over the use of our cash and investments, and their investment may not always yield a favorable return

Our management has broad discretion over how our cash and investments are used and may from time to time invest in ways with which our stockholders may not agree and that do not yield favorable returns.

Executive officers, directors and principal stockholders have substantial control over us, which could delay or prevent a change in our corporate control favored by our other stockholders

Our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders, together with their affiliates, have substantial control over us. The interests of these stockholders may differ from the interests of other stockholders. As a result, these stockholders, if acting together, could have the ability to exercise control over all corporate actions requiring stockholder approval irrespective of how our other stockholders may vote, including:

Our certificate of incorporation, our bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that could discourage another company from acquiring us

Provisions of Delaware law, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws may discourage, delay or prevent a merger or acquisition that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares. These provisions include:

Our bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees

Our bylaws provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware is the exclusive forum for any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of the Company, any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any director, officer or other employee of the Company, any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the General Corporation Law of Delaware or our Certificate of Incorporation or bylaws or any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. The choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees.

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Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

None.

The following chart indicates the facilities that we lease, the location and size of each such facility and their designated use.

We believe that our existing facilities are adequate to meet our current and foreseeable requirements or that suitable additional or substitute space will be available as needed.

We are not a party to any material legal proceedings.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Price Range of Common Stock

Our common stock has been traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol “DRRX” since our initial public offering on September 28, 2000. The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low sales prices for our common stock as reported by the NASDAQ Global Market.

The closing sale price of our common stock as reported on the NASDAQ Global Market on March 2, 2018 was $1.45 per share. As of that date there were approximately 108 holders of record of the common stock. This does not include the number of persons whose stock is in nominee or “street name” accounts through brokers. The market price of our common stock has been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a number of events and factors, such as progress in our development programs, quarterly variations in our operating results, announcements of technological innovations or new products by us or our competitors, changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts, the operating and stock performance of other companies that investors may deem comparable to us, and news reports relating to trends in our markets. These fluctuations, as well as general economic and market conditions, may adversely affect the market price for our common stock.

Dividend Policy

We have never paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. Therefore, we do not currently anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future.

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STOCK PERFORMANCE GRAPH

The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return data for our stock with the cumulative return of (i) The NASDAQ Stock Market (U.S.) Index and (ii) the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index since December 31, 2012. The graph assumes that $100 was invested on December 31, 2012. The stock price performance on the following graph is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.

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DURECT CORPORATION

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

None.

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The following selected financial data should be read in conjunction with and are qualified by reference to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and related notes, which are included in this Form 10-K. The statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016, and 2015 and the balance sheet data at December 31, 2017 and 2016 are derived from, and are qualified by reference to, the audited financial statements included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. The statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, and the balance sheet data at December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 are derived from our audited statements not included in this Form 10-K. Historical operating results are not necessarily indicative of results in the future. See Note 1 of notes to financial statements for an explanation of the determination of the shares used in computing net loss per share.

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This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations as of December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 should be read in conjunction with our Financial Statements, including the Notes thereto, and “Risk Factors” section included elsewhere in this Form 10-K. This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. When used in this report or elsewhere by management from time to time, the words “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect” and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements contained herein are based on current expectations.

Forward-looking statements made in this report include, for example, statements about:

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Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. For a more detailed discussion of such forward looking statements and the potential risks and uncertainties that may impact upon their accuracy, see the “Risk Factors” section and “Overview” section of this Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. These forward-looking statements reflect our view only as of the date of this report. We undertake no obligations to update any forward-looking statements. You should also carefully consider the factors set forth in other reports or documents that we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Overview

We are a biopharmaceutical company with research and development programs broadly falling into two categories: (i) new chemical entities derived from our Epigenetic Regulator Program, in which we attempt to discover and develop molecules which have not previously been approved and marketed as therapeutics, and (ii) Drug Delivery Programs, in which we apply our formulation expertise and technologies largely to active pharmaceutical ingredients whose safety and efficacy have previously been established but which we aim to improve in some manner through a new formulation. We also manufacture and sell osmotic pumps used in laboratory research and design, develop and manufacture a wide range of standard and custom biodegradable polymers and excipients for pharmaceutical and medical device clients for use as raw materials in their products.

A central aspect of our business strategy involves advancing multiple product candidates at one time, which is enabled by leveraging our resources with those of corporate collaborators. Thus, certain of our programs are currently licensed to corporate collaborators on terms which typically call for our collaborator to fund all or a substantial portion of future development costs and then pay us milestone payments based on specific development or commercial achievements plus a royalty on product sales. At the same time, we have retained the rights to other programs, which are the basis of future collaborations and which over time may provide a pathway for us to develop our own commercial, sales and marketing organization.

Collaborative Research and Development and Other Revenues

Collaborative research and development and other revenues consist of three broad categories: (a) the recognition of upfront license payments on a straight-line basis over the period of our continuing involvement with the third party, (b) the reimbursement of qualified research expenses by third parties and (c) milestone payments in connection with our collaborative agreements. During the last three years, we generated collaborative research and development revenues from collaborative agreements with Pain Therapeutics, Zogenix, Santen and others.

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Product Revenues

We have historically generated product revenue through three product lines:

In addition, we currently generate modest revenue related to an animal health product which was approved and launched by our licensee in 2011. We do not intend to significantly increase our investments in or efforts to sell or market any of our existing product lines. However, we expect that we will continue to make efforts to increase our revenue related to collaborative research and development by entering into additional research and development agreements with third-party collaborators to develop pharmaceutical product candidates.

Revenue from Sale of Intellectual Property Rights

From time-to-time, we also enter into arrangements in which we sell intellectual property rights and, in return, may receive upfront payments, contingent milestone payments and earn-outs from third party collaborators. Our deliverable under these arrangements typically consists of the sale of intellectual property rights, and does not include any substantive continuing obligations subsequent to the transfer of the related rights, title, and interest to the buyer. We recognize the upfront payment as revenue because such arrangement is part of our revenue-earning activities and is in line with our ordinary course of ongoing business operations. In September 2017, we entered into a patent purchase agreement with Indivior and received a non-refundable payment of $12.5 million.

Operating Results

Since our inception in 1998, we have generally had a history of operating losses. At December 31, 2017, we had an accumulated deficit of $443.8 million. Our net losses were $3.7 million, $34.5 million and $22.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. These losses have resulted primarily from costs incurred to research and develop our product candidates and to a lesser extent, from selling, general and administrative costs associated with our operations and product sales. We expect our research and development expenses to decrease in 2018 compared to 2017. We expect selling, general and administrative expenses to decrease in 2018 compared to 2017. We do not anticipate meaningful revenues from our products in development, should they be approved, for at least the next twelve months. Therefore, we expect to incur continuing losses and negative cash flows from operations for the foreseeable future.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the dates of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods. The most significant estimates and assumptions relate to revenue recognition, the recoverability of our long-lived assets, including goodwill and other intangible assets, accrued liabilities, contract research liabilities, inventories and stock-based compensation. Actual amounts could differ significantly from these estimates.

Inventories and Purchase Commitments

Our inventories, in part, include certain excipients that are sold to a customer for a currently marketed animal health product and included in several products in development or awaiting regulatory approval. These inventories are capitalized based on management’s judgment of probable sale prior to their expiration dates. The valuation of inventory requires management to estimate the value of inventory that may become expired prior to use. We may be required to expense previously capitalized inventory costs upon a change in management’s judgment due to, among

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other potential factors, a denial or delay of approval of a customer’s product by the necessary regulatory bodies, or new information that suggests that the inventory will not be saleable. In addition, these circumstances may cause us to record a liability related to minimum purchase agreements that we have in place for raw materials. In October 2017, we announced that PERSIST, the Phase 3 clinical trial for POSIMIR, did not meet its primary efficacy endpoint of reduction in pain on movement over the first 48 hours after surgery as compared to standard bupivacaine HCl. As a result, during the year ended December 31, 2017, we recorded charges to cost of goods sold of approximately $2.0 million, of which approximately $503,000 related to the write-down of the cost basis of inventory on hand, $500,000 related to the prepaid inventory for the minimum purchase commitment for the excipient, and $1.0 million related to the recognition of our remaining minimum purchase commitment for the same excipient. As of December 31, 2017, the remaining carrying value of the excipient residing within our inventory was $69,000. In the event that management determines that we will not utilize all of these materials, there could be a potential write-off related to this inventory. If we are able to subsequently sell products made with raw materials that were previously written down, we will report an unusually high gross profit as there will be no associated cost of goods for these materials.

Revenue Recognition

We enter into license and collaboration agreements under which we may receive upfront license fees, research funding and contingent milestone payments and royalties. We evaluate the accounting treatment under these agreements including whether multiple deliverables exist, how the deliverables should be separated and how the consideration should be allocated to one or more units of accounting. For our collaborations with multiple deliverables, we have concluded that the deliverables are not separable and the arrangements should be accounted for as a combined unit of accounting. As a combined unit of accounting, we recognized the consideration for the combined unit of accounting in the same manner as the revenue was recognized for the final deliverable, which was generally ratably over the longest period of involvement. For example, upfront payments received upon execution of collaborative agreements are recorded as deferred revenue and recognized as collaborative research and development revenue based on a straight-line basis over the period of our continuing involvement with the third-party collaborator pursuant to the applicable agreement. Such period generally represents the longer of the estimated research and development period or other continuing obligation period defined in the respective agreements between us and our third-party collaborators. If we determine that the expected timeline for a project and therefore our continuing involvement is materially different than we previously assumed, we will adjust the period over which we recognize the deferred revenue.

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses are primarily comprised of salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation and other compensation cost associated with research and development personnel, overhead and facility costs, preclinical and non-clinical development costs, clinical trial and related clinical manufacturing costs, contract services, and other outside costs. Research and development costs are expensed as incurred. Research and development costs paid to third parties under sponsored research agreements are recognized as expense as the related services are performed, generally ratably over the period of service.

Goodwill

Goodwill is periodically assessed and evaluated for impairment at the reporting unit level. The Company operates in one operating segment and also has only one reporting unit, which is the research, development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. We assess the impairment of goodwill at least annually and whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value may not be recoverable. Factors we consider important which could trigger an impairment review include the following:

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As of December 31, 2017, the carrying value of goodwill was approximately $6.4 million and no impairment of goodwill has been recorded for any of the periods presented. However, there can be no assurance that at the time other periodic reviews are completed, a material impairment charge will not be recorded.

Accrued Liabilities and Contract Research Liabilities

We incur significant costs associated with third party consultants and organizations for pre-clinical studies, clinical trials, contract manufacturing, validation, testing, and other research and development-related services. We are required to estimate periodically the cost of services rendered but unbilled based on management’s estimates of project status. If these good faith estimates are inaccurate, actual expenses incurred could materially differ from our estimates.

Stock-Based Compensation

Employee stock-based compensation is estimated at the date of grant based on the employee stock award’s fair value using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model and is recognized as expense ratably over the requisite period.

We estimate the volatility of our common stock at the date of grant based on the historical volatility of our common stock. We base the risk-free rate that we use in the Black-Scholes option valuation model on the implied yield in effect at the time of option grant on U.S. Treasury zero-coupon issues with equivalent remaining terms. We have never paid any cash dividends on our common stock and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Consequently, we use an expected dividend yield of zero in the Black-Scholes option valuation model. We estimate forfeitures at the time of grant and revise those estimates in subsequent periods if actual forfeitures differ from those estimates. We use historical data to estimate pre-vesting option forfeitures and record stock-based compensation expense only for those awards that are expected to vest. We amortize the fair value of options granted on a straight-line basis. All options are amortized over the requisite service periods of the awards, which are generally the vesting periods. We may elect to use different assumptions under the Black-Scholes option valuation model in the future, which could materially affect our net income or loss and net income or loss per share.

Results of Operations

Comparison of years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015

Collaborative research and development and other revenue

We recognize revenues from collaborative research and development activities and service contracts. Collaborative research and development revenue primarily represents reimbursement of qualified expenses related to the collaborative agreements with various third parties to research, develop and commercialize potential products using our drug delivery technologies, revenue recognized from ratable recognition of non-refundable upfront fees, and milestone payments in connection with our collaborative agreements.

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We expect our collaborative research and development revenue to fluctuate in future periods pending our efforts to enter into potential new collaborations and our existing third party collaborators’ commitment to and progress in the research and development programs. The collaborative research and development and other revenues associated with our major collaborators are as follows (in thousands):

The increase in collaborative research and development revenue in 2017 compared with 2016 was primarily due to higher revenue recognized from our agreements with Sandoz and Zogenix and higher revenue recognized from our feasibility agreements with other companies. The increase was partially offset by lower revenue recognized from our agreements with Pain Therapeutics and Santen. In 2016, our role in the development activities for certain ORADUR-based opioid products, including REMOXY ER, and the Santen ophthalmic program decreased.

The decrease in collaborative research and development revenue in 2016 compared with 2015 was primarily due to lower revenue recognized from our agreements with Zogenix, Pain Therapeutics and Santen, as our role in the development activities for Relday, certain ORADUR-based opioid products including REMOXY ER, and the Santen ophthalmic program decreased in 2016, as well as lower revenue recognized from our feasibility agreements with other companies.

We received a $20.0 million upfront fee in connection with the license agreement signed with Sandoz in June 2017. At December 31, 2017, all of the $20.0 million upfront fee had been recognized as revenue as our contractual performance obligations had been fulfilled.

We received a $2.0 million upfront fee in connection with the license agreement signed with Santen in December 2014. The $2.0 million upfront fee is being recognized as collaborative research and development revenue ratably over the term of our continuing involvement with Santen. At December 31, 2017, $717,000 of the $2.0 million upfront fee had been recognized as revenue.

We received a $2.25 million upfront fee in connection with the development and license agreement signed with Zogenix in July 2011 relating to Relday. The $2.25 million upfront fee was being recognized as collaborative research and development revenue ratably over the term of our continuing involvement with Zogenix with respect to Relday. As a result of the termination of the Zogenix agreement in August 2017, we recognized revenue during the

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third quarter of 2017 for the remaining $750,000 of deferred revenue related to the upfront fee as we had no remaining performance obligations under the agreement; this recognition of revenue did not result in additional cash proceeds to us. At December 31, 2017, all of the $2.25 million upfront fee had been recognized as revenue.

As of March 2, 2018, we had potential milestones of up to $337.5 million that we may receive in the future under our collaborative arrangements, of which $44.5 million are development-based milestones and $293.0 million are sales-based milestones. Within the category of development-based milestones, $2.0 million are related to early stage clinical testing (defined as Phase 1 or 2 activities), $3.0 million are related to late stage clinical testing (defined as Phase 3 activities), $8.0 million are related to regulatory filings, and $31.5 million are related to regulatory approvals. No payments were received between December 31, 2017 and March 2, 2018.

Product revenue

A portion of our revenues is derived from product sales, which include our ALZET mini pump product line, our LACTEL biodegradable polymer product line and certain excipients that are included in REMOXY ER and in a currently marketed animal health product. Net product revenues were $13.1 million, $12.1 million and $11.3 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The increase in product revenues in 2017 was primarily attributable to higher revenue from our LACTEL product line as a result of higher units sold, partially offset by lower product revenue from the sale of certain excipients included in REMOXY ER and in a currently marketed animal health product as well as lower product revenue from our ALZET mini pump product line as a result of lower units sold compared to 2016.

The increase in product revenues in 2016 was primarily attributable to higher revenue from the sale of certain excipients included in REMOXY ER and another product as well as higher revenue from our LACTEL product line and ALZET mini pump product line as a result of higher average selling prices for these two product lines compared to 2015.

Revenues in 2017, 2016 and 2015 included $53,000, $653,000 and $96,000 in product revenue related to the sale of excipients included in REMOXY ER and a currently marketed animal health product.

Revenue from sale of intellectual property rights

Revenue from the sale of intellectual property rights was $12.5 million in 2017 compared to zero in each of 2016 and 2015. We entered into a patent purchase agreement with Indivior and received a non-refundable payment of $12.5 million in September 2017. We recognized the $12.5 million as revenue from sale of intellectual property rights in 2017 as we did not have any substantive continuing obligations under the purchase agreement.  We are not expecting any material revenues from the sale of intellectual property rights in 2018.

Cost of product revenues

Cost of product revenues was $6.6 million, $5.3 million and $3.9 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Cost of product revenues includes the cost of product revenue from our ALZET product line, our LACTEL product line and certain excipients that are included in several products in development or awaiting regulatory approval by partners and a currently marketed animal health product.

The increase in the cost of product revenue in 2017 was primarily the result of charges of approximately $2.0 million associated with the write-down of an excipient in light of the failure of PERSIST, the Phase 3 clinical trial of POSIMIR, to achieve the primary efficacy endpoint, compared with $926,000 associated with the write-down of the excipient included in REMOXY ER in light of the Complete Response Letter received by Pain Therapeutics for REMOXY ER in 2016. Excluding the charges associated with the write-down of certain excipients included in 2017 and 2016, respectively, the increase in the cost of product revenue in 2017 was primarily the result of higher cost of goods sold related to our LACTEL product line arising from higher units sold, partially offset by lower cost of goods sold related to our ALZET product line arising from lower units sold and from lower cost of goods sold related to the sale of certain excipients included in REMOXY ER and another product compared to 2016.

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The increase in the cost of product revenues in 2016 was primarily the result of a charge of $926,000 associated with the write-down of certain excipients in light of the Complete Response Letter received by Pain Therapeutics for REMOXY ER in September 2016. In addition, we experienced higher cost of goods sold from the sale of certain excipients in 2016 arising from higher units sold, as well as higher cost of goods sold from our LACTEL product line and ALZET mini pump product line arising from higher manufacturing costs for these two product lines compared to 2015.

Stock-based compensation expense related to cost of product revenues was $109,000, $106,000 and $108,000 in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

As of December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, we had 21, 20 and 22 manufacturing employees, respectively.

Research and development.    Research and development expenses are primarily comprised of salaries, benefits, stock-based compensation and other compensation cost associated with research and development personnel, overhead and facility costs, preclinical and non-clinical development costs, clinical trial and related clinical manufacturing costs, contract services, and other outside costs. Research and development expenses were $31.6 million, $29.3 million and $24.3 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Stock-based compensation expense recognized related to research and development personnel was $1.4 million in each of 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Research and development expenses increased by $2.3 million in 2017 compared to 2016. The increase in 2017 was primarily attributable to higher research and development costs associated with POSIMIR and depot injectable programs, partially offset by lower research and development costs associated with DUR-928, Relday, REMOXY ER, the Santen ophthalmic program, and ORADUR-ADHD and other research programs as more fully discussed below.

Research and development expenses increased by $5.0 million in 2016 compared to 2015. The increase in 2016 was primarily attributable to higher research and development costs associated with DUR-928 and POSIMIR, partially offset by lower research and development costs associated with Relday, REMOXY ER, depot injectable programs, the Santen ophthalmic program, and ORADUR-ADHD and other research programs as more fully discussed below.

Research and development expenses associated with our major development programs are as follows (in thousands):

POSIMIR

Our research and development expenses for POSIMIR increased to $15.1 million in 2017 from $11.7 million in 2016, primarily due to higher clinical trial expenses and other outside expenses for POSIMIR.

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Our research and development expenses for POSIMIR increased to $11.7 million in 2016 from $7.2 million in 2015, primarily due to higher employee-related costs, clinical trial expenses and contract manufacturing expenses, partially offset by lower expenses for outside supplies for POSIMIR.

DUR-928

Our research and development expenses for DUR-928 decreased to $13.3 million in 2017 from $13.7 million in 2016, primarily due to lower contract manufacturing expenses, partially offset by higher clinical trial expenses and higher employee-related costs incurred for this drug candidate.

Our research and development expenses for DUR-928 increased to $13.7 million in 2016 from $8.3 million in 2015, primarily due to increased development activities, including higher employee-related costs, clinical trial expenses, non-clinical related expenses, contract manufacturing and contract research expenses incurred for this drug candidate.

Depot injectable programs

Our research and development expenses for depot injectable programs increased to $2.4 million in 2017 from $1.4 million in 2016 primarily due to higher employee-related costs for these programs.

Our research and development expenses for depot injectable programs decreased to $1.4 million in 2016 from $1.7 million in 2015 primarily due to lower employee-related costs and lower costs related to research supplies.

REMOXY ER

Our research and development expenses for REMOXY ER decreased to $115,000 in 2017 from $525,000 in 2016, primarily due to lower employee-related costs for REMOXY ER.

Our research and development expenses for REMOXY ER decreased to $525,000 in 2016 from $872,000 in 2015, primarily due to lower employee-related costs for REMOXY ER.

ORADUR-ADHD

Our research and development expenses for ORADUR-ADHD decreased to $104,000 in 2017 from $177,000 in 2016, primarily due lower employee-related costs for ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER.

Our research and development expenses for ORADUR-ADHD decreased to $177,000 in 2016 from $204,000 in 2015, primarily due to lower employee-related costs for ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER.

Santen ophthalmic program

Our research and development expenses for the Santen ophthalmic program decreased to $99,000 in 2017 from $366,000 in 2016, primarily due to decreased formulation development activities and lower employee-related costs associated with this drug candidate.

Our research and development expenses for the Santen ophthalmic program decreased to $366,000 in 2016 from $597,000 in 2015, primarily due to lower employee-related costs as a result of decreased formulation development activities for this drug candidate.

Relday

Our research and development expenses for Relday decreased to $39,000 in 2017 from $463,000 in 2016 primarily due to decreased development activities and lower employee-related costs incurred for this drug candidate.

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Our research and development expenses for Relday decreased to $463,000 in 2016 from $4.4 million in 2015 primarily due to decreased development activities and lower employee-related costs incurred for this drug candidate.

Other DURECT research programs

Our research and development expenses for all other research activities decreased to $462,000 in 2017 from $917,000 in 2016, primarily due to lower employee-related costs incurred for these programs.

Our research and development expenses for all other research activities decreased to $917,000 in 2016 from $1.1 million in 2015, primarily due to lower employee-related costs incurred for these programs.

As of December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, we had 49, 52 and 57 research and development employees, respectively.

We cannot reasonably estimate the timing and costs of our research and development programs due to the risks and uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceuticals as outlined in the “Risk Factors” section of this report. The duration of development of our research and development programs may span as many as ten years or more, and estimation of completion dates or costs to complete would be highly speculative and subjective due to the numerous risks and uncertainties associated with developing pharmaceutical products, including significant and changing government regulation, the uncertainties of future preclinical and clinical study results, the uncertainties with our collaborators’ commitment to and progress in the programs and the uncertainties associated with process development and manufacturing as well as sales and marketing. In addition, with respect to our development programs subject to third-party collaborations, the timing and expenditures to complete the programs are subject to the control of our collaborators. Therefore, we cannot reasonably estimate the timing and costs of the efforts necessary to complete the research and development programs. For additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties, see “Risk Factors” above.

Selling, general and administrative.    Selling, general and administrative expenses are primarily comprised of salaries, benefits and stock-based compensation associated with finance, legal, business development, sales and marketing and other administrative personnel, overhead and facility costs, and other general and administrative costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses were $13.2 million, $11.8 million and $11.6 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Stock-based compensation expense recognized related to selling, general and administrative personnel was $1.1 million in 2017 and 2016, and $1.2 million in 2015, respectively.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by approximately $1.4 million in 2017 compared to 2016, primarily due to an advisory fee related to the execution of the Sandoz agreement which occurred in the second quarter of 2017 and higher general legal expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $259,000 in 2016 compared to 2015, primarily due to higher employee related costs and general legal expenses.

As of December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, we had 24, 24 and 26 selling, general and administrative personnel, respectively.

Other income (expense).    Interest and other income was $967,000, $143,000 and $237,000 in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The increase in interest and other income in 2017 compared to 2016 was primarily the result of a gain of $500,000 from selling certain intellectual property rights in 2017 which were not part of our ordinary course of business. In addition, we recorded a deferred tax benefit of $153,000 in 2017 as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act compared to zero in 2016. The increase in interest and other income in 2017 was also due to higher interest income generated from our investments as a result of higher yields and higher average balances in 2017 compared to 2016. The decrease in interest and other income in 2016 compared to 2015 was primarily the result of a realized gain from the sale of a marketable equity security in 2015, partially offset by higher interest income generated from our investments in 2016.

Interest expense was $2.4 million, $2.3 million and $2.2 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The increase in interest expense in 2017 compared to 2016 was primarily due to higher interest expenses recorded for the term loan refinanced in July 2016 compared to 2016. The increase in interest expense in 2016 compared to 2015 was

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primarily due to slightly higher interest expense and amortization of debt discount related to a long-term debt arrangement amended in July 2015 and refinanced in July 2016.

Income taxes.    As of December 31, 2017, we had net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards for federal income tax purposes of approximately $327.1 million, which expire in the years 2019 through 2036, and federal research and development tax credits of approximately $12.5 million, which expire at various dates beginning in 2018 through 2037, if not utilized. As of December 31, 2017, we had NOL carryforwards for state income tax purposes of approximately $204.9 million, which expire in the years 2028 through 2036, and state research and development tax credits of approximately $13.7 million, which do not expire. Utilization of the net operating losses may be subject to a substantial annual limitation due to federal and state ownership change limitations. The annual limitation may result in the expiration of net operating losses and credits before utilization.

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, we had net deferred tax assets of $106.4 million and $149.5 million, respectively. Deferred tax assets reflect the net tax effects of net operating loss and credit carryforwards and the temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting and the amounts used for income tax purposes. Realization of deferred tax assets is dependent upon future earnings, if any, the timing and amount of which are uncertain. Accordingly, the net deferred tax assets have been fully offset by a valuation allowance.

Because realization of such tax benefits is uncertain, we provided a 100% valuation allowance as of December 31, 2017 and 2016. Utilization of the NOL and R&D credits carryforwards may be subject to a substantial annual limitation due to ownership change limitations that have occurred previously or that could occur in the future provided by Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as well as similar state and foreign provisions. These ownership changes may limit the amount of NOL and R&D credits carryforwards that can be utilized annually to offset future taxable income and tax, respectively. In general, an ownership change, as defined by Section 382, results from transactions increasing the ownership of certain shareholders or public groups in the stock of a corporation by more than 50 percentage points over a three-year period. Since our formation, we have raised capital through the issuance of capital stock on several occasions which, combined with the purchasing shareholders’ subsequent disposition of those shares, may have resulted in a change of control, as defined by Section 382, or could result in a change of control in the future upon subsequent disposition. We issued $60.0 million of convertible notes in 2003 and subsequently all of these notes had been converted as of December 31, 2008 into approximately 19.0 million shares of our common stock. We also issued approximately 4.4 million shares of our common stock to an institutional investor in connection with an equity financing in September 2009. In December 2012, November 2013 and April 2016, we completed underwritten public offerings in which we sold an aggregate of approximately 14.0 million, 8.2 million and 13.8 million shares, respectively, of our common stock pursuant to effective registration statements. In 2015, 2016, 2017 and from January 1, 2018 to March 2, 2018, we issued approximately 7.1 million, 5.2 million, 8.9 million and 2.5 million shares, respectively, of our common stock in the open market through Controlled Equity Offering sales agreements with Cantor Fitzgerald pursuant to effective registration statements. These transactions may also have resulted in a change of control as defined by Section 382 or could result in a change of control in the future upon the subsequent disposition of the shares.

We have not currently completed a study to assess whether a change in control has occurred or whether there have been multiple changes of control since our formation due to the significant complexity and cost associated with such a study and the fact that there could be additional changes in the future. If we have experienced a change of control at any time since our formation, utilization of our NOL or R&D credits carryforwards would be subject to an annual limitation under Sections 382 and 383 which is determined by first multiplying the value of our stock at the time of the ownership change by the applicable long-term tax-exempt rate, and then could be subject to additional adjustments, as required. Any limitation may result in expiration of a portion of our NOL or R&D credits carryforwards before utilization. Tax years 1998 to 2017 remain subject to future examination by the major tax jurisdictions in which we are subject to tax.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We had cash, cash equivalents, and investments totaling $36.9 million and $25.2 million at December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively. This includes $150,000 of interest-bearing marketable securities classified as restricted investments on our balance sheet as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, which primarily serve as collateral for a letter

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of credit securing our leased facility in California. The letter of credit for our leased facility in California will expire in February 2019.

We used $1.3 million, $27.3 million and $20.8 million of cash in operating activities in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The cash used for operations was primarily to fund operations as well as our working capital requirements. Our cash used in operating activities differs from our net loss in part due to the timing and recognition of up-front payments under collaborative agreements. Upfront payments received upon execution of collaborative agreements are recorded as deferred revenue and generally recognized on a straight-line basis over the period of our continuing involvement with the third-party collaborator pursuant to the applicable agreement. The decrease in cash used in operations in 2017 compared with 2016 was primarily due to the receipt of the $20.0 million non-refundable upfront fee from Sandoz and the $12.5 million non-refundable upfront fee from Indivior, partially offset by cash used to fund operations as well as our working capital requirements and reflected a net loss of $3.7 million as well as changes in accrued and other liabilities. The increase in cash used in operations in 2016 compared with 2015 reflected an increase in net loss of $11.8 million, partially offset by changes in accounts receivable, prepaid expenses and other assets, and in accrued liabilities.

We received $12.7 million, $6.0 million and $6.5 million of cash from investing activities in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The increase in cash provided by investing activities in 2017 compared to 2016 was primarily due to a decrease in purchase of available-for-sale securities offset by a decrease in net maturities of available-for-sale securities. The decrease in cash provided by investing activities in 2016 was primarily due to a decrease in net maturities of available-for-sale securities offset by a decrease in purchase of available-for-sale securities. We anticipate incurring capital expenditures of approximately $100,000 over the next 12 months. The amount and timing of these capital expenditures will depend on, among other things, our research and development activities and needs, and the need for equipment replacements.

We generated $12.6 million, $23.1 million and $15.2 million of cash from financing activities in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The decrease in cash provided by financing activities in 2017 compared to 2016 was primarily due to lower net proceeds received from issuances of common stock. The increase in cash provided by financing activities in 2016 compared to 2015 was primarily the result of higher proceeds from the issuances of common stock from open market sales, partially offset by a partial final payment for a term loan in connection with refinancing of the debt arrangement in July 2016 as well as lower proceeds from exercises of stock options and from purchases under our Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

We entered into a Controlled Equity Offering sales agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald on November 3, 2015, under which we may sell up to $40 million of common stock through Cantor Fitzgerald, acting as agent, subject to certain limitations, pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that we filed with the SEC on November 3, 2015, which was declared effective by the SEC on November 25, 2015. In 2015, we raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $14.3 million from the sale of approximately 7.1 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $2.09 per share. In 2016, we raised net proceeds of approximately $16.1 million (after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses) through the sale of an aggregate of 13.8 million shares of our common stock in an underwritten public offering at a price to the public of $1.25 per share and raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $7.6 million from the sale of approximately 5.2 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $1.50 per share.  In 2017, we raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $12.0 million from the sale of approximately 8.9 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $1.39 per share. From January 1, 2018 to March 2, 2018, we raised net proceeds (net of commissions) of approximately $2.8 million from the sale of 2.5 million shares of our common stock in the open market through the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald at a weighted average price of $1.17 per share. As of March 2, 2018, the Company had up to approximately $14.9 million of common stock available for sale under the Controlled Equity Offering program and approximately $67.8 million of common stock available for sale under the shelf registration statement. Any additional sales in the public market of our common stock, under the Controlled Equity Offering program with Cantor Fitzgerald or otherwise under the November 2015 shelf registration statement, could adversely affect prevailing market prices for our common stock.

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On June 26, 2014, we entered into a loan agreement (the 2014 Loan Agreement) with Oxford Finance LLC, pursuant to which Oxford Finance provided a $20.0 million secured single-draw term loan to us with a maturity date of July 1, 2018. The term loan was fully drawn at close and the proceeds are to be used for working capital and general business requirements. The term loan repayment schedule provided for interest only payments for the first 18 months, followed by consecutive equal monthly payments of principal and interest in arrears starting on February 1, 2016 and continuing through the maturity date. The 2014 Loan Agreement provided for a 7.95% interest rate on the term loan, a $150,000 facility fee that was paid at closing and an additional payment equal to 8% of the principal amount of the term loan, which was due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility. If we elected to prepay the loan, there was also a prepayment fee between 1% and 3% of the principal amount of the term loan depending on the timing and circumstances of prepayment. In connection with the term loan, we received proceeds of $19.8 million, net of debt offering/issuance costs. The debt offering/issuance costs were recorded as debt discount on our balance sheet which together with the additional $1.6 million payment and fixed interest rate payments was being amortized to interest expense throughout the life of the term loan using the effective interest rate method.

In July 2015, we and Oxford Finance entered into the First Amendment of the 2014 Loan Agreement and modified the terms to the Loan Agreement to change the maturity date from July 1, 2018 to July 1, 2019 and to change the first principal payment date from February 1, 2016 to February 1, 2017. The interest rate remained unchanged, we paid a loan modification fee of $240,000 and the additional payment originally equal to 8% of the principal amount of the term loan, which is due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility, was increased to 10%.

In July 2016, we renegotiated the terms of our $20.0 million secured single-draw term loan with Oxford Finance with such renegotiated terms being formalized in a new Loan and Security Agreement (the 2016 Loan Agreement). The 2016 Loan Agreement provides for interest only payments for the first 18 months, followed by consecutive monthly payments of principal and interest in arrears starting on March 1, 2018 and continuing through the maturity date of the term loan of August 1, 2020. The 2016 Loan Agreement also provides for a floating interest rate (7.95% initially and 8.87% as of December 31, 2017) based on an index rate plus a spread, a $150,000 facility fee that was paid at closing and an additional payment equal to 9.25% of the principal amount of the term loan, which is due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility. If we elect to prepay the loan, there is also a prepayment fee between 1% and 3% of the principal amount of the term loan depending on the timing of prepayment. The facility fee and other debt offering/issuance costs have been recorded as debt discount on our balance sheet and together with the final $1.9 million payment and interest rate payments will be amortized to interest expense throughout the life of the term loan using the effective interest rate method. In connection with this renegotiation, we also paid Oxford Finance $886,000, which represented a portion of the final payment under the 2014 Loan Agreement which would have been payable to Oxford Finance when that loan became due.

The term loan is secured by substantially all of our assets, except that the collateral does not include any intellectual property (including licensing, collaboration and similar agreements relating thereto), and certain other excluded assets. The 2016 Loan Agreement contains customary representations, warranties and covenants by us, which covenants limit our ability to convey, sell, lease, transfer, assign or otherwise dispose of certain assets; engage in any business other than the businesses currently engaged in by us or reasonably related thereto; liquidate or dissolve; make certain management changes; undergo certain change of control events; create, incur, assume, or be liable with respect to certain indebtedness; grant certain liens; pay dividends and make certain other restricted payments; make certain investments; and make payments on any subordinated debt.

The 2016 Loan Agreement also contains customary indemnification obligations and customary events of default, including, among other things, our failure to fulfill certain obligations under the 2016 Loan Agreement and the occurrence of a material adverse change which is defined as a material adverse change in our business, operations, or condition (financial or otherwise), a material impairment of the prospect of repayment of any portion of the loan, or a material impairment in the perfection or priority of lender’s lien in the collateral or in the value of such collateral. In the event of default by us under the 2016 Loan Agreement, the lender would be entitled to exercise its remedies thereunder, including the right to accelerate the debt, upon which we may be required to repay all amounts then outstanding under the 2016 Loan Agreement. As a result, that portion of the term loan that is due more than 12 months after December 31, 2017 has been classified within non-current liabilities.

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In February 2018, the Company and Oxford Finance entered into a First Amendment of the Loan Agreement, which modified the terms of the Loan Agreement to change the first principal payment date from March 1, 2018 to December 1, 2018 and to increase the additional payment due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility from 9.25% of the principal amount of the term loan to 10% of such amount.  The interest rate and the maturity date remain unchanged, and the Company paid Oxford Finance a loan modification fee of $100,000.

Cash used in our operating activities is heavily influenced by the timing and structure of new corporate collaborations. While one feature of our business strategy is seeking new corporate collaborations, assuming no new collaborations and no milestone payments, we anticipate that cash used in operating activities will increase in the near term as we received a non-refundable upfront fee of $20.0 million from Sandoz and a non-refundable upfront fee of $12.5 million from Indivior in 2017.

In aggregate, we are required to make future payments pursuant to our existing contractual obligations as follows (in thousands):

We believe that our existing cash, cash equivalents and investments will be sufficient to fund our planned operations, existing debt and contractual commitments and planned capital expenditures through at least the next 12 months from the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We may consume available resources more rapidly than currently anticipated, resulting in the need for additional funding. Additionally, we do not expect to generate significant revenues from our pharmaceutical products currently under development for at least the next twelve months, if at all. Depending on whether we enter into additional collaborative agreements in the near term and the extent to which we earn milestone revenues, we may be required to raise additional capital through a variety of sources, including:

There can be no assurance that we will enter into additional collaborative agreements in the near term, will earn milestone revenues or that additional capital will be available on favorable terms, if at all. If adequate funds are not available, we may be required to significantly reduce or refocus our operations or to obtain funds through arrangements that may require us to relinquish rights to certain of our products, technologies or potential markets, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. To the extent that additional capital is raised through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, the issuance of such securities would result in ownership dilution to our existing stockholders (assuming any convertible debt securities were converted into shares).

Our cash and investments policy emphasizes liquidity and preservation of principal over other portfolio considerations. We select investments that maximize interest income to the extent possible given these two constraints. We satisfy liquidity requirements by investing excess cash in securities with different maturities to match projected cash needs and limit concentration of credit risk by diversifying our investments among a variety of high credit-quality issuers.

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Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Accounting Standards Update 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (ASU 2014-09), which amends the guidance in former ASC 605, Revenue Recognition. The core principle of the guidance is that an entity should recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The guidance provides companies with two implementation methods. Companies can choose to apply the standard retrospectively to each prior reporting period presented (full retrospective application) or retrospectively with the cumulative effect of initially applying the standard as an adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings of the annual reporting period that includes the date of initial application (modified retrospective application). The standard will be effective for us in the first quarter of 2018.  

To date, our revenues have been derived from product sales, license and collaboration agreements, and sale of intellectual property rights. Based on our analysis, we do not currently anticipate a material quantitative impact on product revenue as the timing of revenue recognition for product sales is not expected to change as product revenue will continue to be recognized when control of the goods is transferred to the customer. For our license and collaboration agreements, the consideration we are eligible to receive under these agreements typically consists of upfront payments, research and development funding, milestone payments, and royalties. For our agreements related to sale of intellectual property rights, the consideration we are eligible to receive under these agreements typically consists of upfront payments, milestone payments, and earn-outs. We have substantially completed our review of the impact that this new standard will have on our collaboration and license arrangements and intellectual property purchase agreements as well as on our financial statement disclosures.  

We will select the modified retrospective method to adopt the standard effective the first quarter of 2018. We expect that the impact of adopting the new standard will not be material. We do not expect a material cumulative-effect adjustment to accumulated deficit on January 1, 2018 upon adoption of the new standard. The new standard requires more robust disclosures than required by previous guidance, including disclosures related to disaggregation of revenue into appropriate categories, performance obligations, the judgments made in revenue recognition determinations, adjustments to revenue which relate to activities from previous quarters or years, any significant reversals of revenue, and costs to obtain or fulfill contracts.

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842), which amends the existing accounting standards for leases. The new standard requires lessees to record a right-of-use asset and a corresponding lease liability on the balance sheet (with the exception of short-term leases). For lessees, leases will continue to be classified as either operating or financing in the income statement. This ASU becomes effective for us in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019 and early adoption is permitted. This ASU is required to be applied with a modified retrospective approach and requires application of the new standard at the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented. We are currently evaluating the impact that ASU 2016-02 will have on its financial statements.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not utilized “off-balance sheet” arrangements to fund our operations or otherwise manage our financial position.

Interest Rate Risk

Our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates primarily to our investment portfolio and to our term loan. Fixed rate securities and borrowings may have their fair market value adversely impacted due to fluctuations in interest rates, while floating rate securities may produce less income than expected if interest rates fall and floating rate borrowings may lead to additional interest expense if interest rates increase. Due in part to these factors, our future investment income may fall short of expectations due to changes in interest rates or we may suffer losses in principal if forced to sell securities which have declined in market value due to changes in interest rates. Our interest expense on the term loan may rise if the interest rates increase.

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Our primary investment objective is to preserve principal while at the same time maximizing yields without significantly increasing risk. Our portfolio includes money markets funds, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, corporate debt, and U.S. government agencies. The diversity of our portfolio helps us to achieve our investment objectives. As of December 31, 2017, approximately 100% of our investment portfolio is composed of investments with original maturities of one year or less and approximately 78.7% of our investment portfolio matures less than 90 days from the date of purchase.

The following table presents the amounts of our cash equivalents and investments that may be subject to interest rate risk and the average interest rates as of December 31, 2017 by year of maturity (dollars in thousands):

The following table presents the amounts of our cash equivalents and investments that may be subject to interest rate risk and the average interest rates as of December 31, 2016 by year of maturity (dollars in thousands):

As of December 31, 2017, the fair value of our term loan was estimated to be $19.9 million. The term loan repayment schedule provides for interest only payments for the first 18 months after July 2016, followed by consecutive monthly payments of principal and interest in arrears starting on March 1, 2018 and continuing through the maturity date of the term loan of August 1, 2020. The term loan also provides for a floating interest rate (7.95% initially and 8.87% as of December 31, 2017) based on an index rate plus a spread and an additional payment equal

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to 9.25% of the principal amount of the term loan, which is due when the term loan becomes due or upon the prepayment of the facility. If the Company elects to prepay the loan, there is also a prepayment fee between 1% and 3% of the principal amount of the term loan depending on the timing of prepayment. The obligation under the term loan is subject to interest rate risk because the interest rates under the obligation may exceed current interest rates.

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DURECT CORPORATION

INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of DURECT Corporation

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying balance sheets of DURECT Corporation (the Company) as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the related statements of operations and comprehensive loss, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017, and the related notes and the financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15(a)(2) (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2017 and 2016, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. 

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2017, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 Framework) and our report dated March 8, 2018 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1998.

San Francisco, California

March 8, 2018

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DURECT CORPORATION

BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands, except per share amounts)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements.

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DURECT CORPORATION

STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS

(in thousands, except per share amounts)