美国DURECT
DURECT公司是一家于1998年由Dr. Felix Theeuwe所成立的制药公司，而Dr. Felix Theeuwe正是是Alzet植入式胶囊渗透压泵的发明者，同时他也是ALZA公司的原首席科学家和首席执行官。DURECT公司的主要方向是为慢性病的患者研究更有效的治疗药物和治疗手段，来减轻疾病为他们带来的痛苦并提高他们的生活质量。为了达到这个目的，DURECT公司收购了Alzet的生产线，期望以这种新颖的药物投递系统来建立一种全新的、能实现精确控制投放的药物产品，DURECT公司为长期药物定量投放试验的需求搭建了一个崭新的技术平台。

DURECT is employing advanced enabling drug delivery technologies to develop new and improved pharmaceutical products. Our mission is to develop therapies that will improve the quality of life for patients with chronic diseases and other medical conditions. DURECT's strategy is:

to develop proprietary products in chronic care areas with an approach that minimizes development risk and maximizes speed to market
to expand our technology platforms through both internal work and acquisitions, and
to optimize and enable the development of biotech products.

Our vision for product development is to combine known drugs (both in terms of efficacy and side effect profile) with proven systems to get drugs quickly to market and lower development risk.

Biotechnology products such as proteins, peptides and gene-based medicines are not typically deliverable in conventional oral formulations. DURECT's injectable, implantable and micro-catheter-based technologies allow for site-specific delivery of drugs while reducing drug degradation, a current obstacle with the delivery of protein and peptides. Additionally, DURECT has acquired technologies to expand the breadth of its drug delivery capabilities into injectable, transdermal and oral dosage forms. DURECT believes that its technologies have the potential to make significant impacts in the treatment of chronic debilitating diseases and may in the future enable biotechnology drugs to reach the marketplace in a superior dosage form.

The modern history of drug delivery started with the founding of ALZA Corporation in 1968 by Dr. Alejandro (Alex) Zaffaroni. His vision was to develop therapeutic systems that delivered drugs at controlled rates to the patient at the right site and right time. The impact of this approach in the field of medicine has been profound and its impact on the pharmaceutical business showed that major products could be produced in about half the time and for a tenth of the investment needed for a new chemical entity. In March 2001, Johnson & Johnson purchased ALZA Corporation for approximately $11 billion.

To continue this legacy, DURECT spun out of ALZA in 1998. The company was founded based on a license to the DUROS® technology for specific therapeutic areas and a first round of private financing in June 1998. DURECT subsequently acquired and developed additional advanced technologies to address a range of specific drug delivery challenges and enable the development of a broad product pipeline.

Acquisitions to date include IntraEAR, Inc. (a privately held company with technology relating to local delivery of drugs to the ear), the ALZET® product line (osmotic pumps for laboratory research), Southern BioSystems, Inc., (a privately held company with multiple drug delivery technologies) and Absorbable Polymer Technologies, Inc. (a privately held manufacturer of biodegradable polymers).

DURECT completed an initial public offering of its stock in September 2000, and its stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol DRRX. DURECT is an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of pharmaceutical systems that treat chronic debilitating diseases and enable biotechnology products.

Our platform technologies include:

the SABER™ Delivery System (a patented and versatile depot injectable useful for protein and small molecule delivery),
the TRANSDUR™ transdermal patch technology system,
the ORADUR® Sustained Release Gel-Cap Technology (an oral sustained release technology with several potential abuse deterrent properties),
the DURIN™ Biodegradable Implant Technology,
the DUROS™ Technology, and
the MICRODUR™ Biodegradable Microparticulate Technology.
DURECT also partners with pharmaceutical companies to develop and commercialize proprietary and enhanced pharmaceutical products based on its technologies.

In addition to its pharmaceutical research and development operations, DURECT also manufactures and sells the ALZET® ( ) product line used in laboratory research and develops and manufactures biodegradable polymers ( ) for third party pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for use in their products.