SurModics, Inc. (NASD: SRDX), a leading provider of surface modification and drug delivery technologies to the healthcare industry, recently announced that Merck & Co., Inc. has notified the company that it will discontinue the License and Research Collaboration Agreement the companies signed in June 2007. Shares of SurModics declined sharply earlier this week after the announcement. Merck’s decision triggers an additional $9 million payment to SurModics from Merck.

SurModics partners with the world’s foremost medical device, pharmaceutical and life science companies to develop and commercialize innovative products that result in improved patient outcomes. Clinical data on I-vation TA generated to date has provided strong support for the tolerability profile of I-vation TA, and more generally, that of the I-vation sustained delivery platform.

The president and chief executive officer of SurModics, Bruce Barclay, commented during a recent a conference call stating, “Merck’s decision was prompted by a strategic review of its business and product development portfolio. While we can’t speak for Merck, it is our understanding that this decision reflects their reassessment of their original aspirations to strategically invest in back of the eye disease. However, it is very clear that this decision was not based on any concerns about the safety or efficacy of I-vation(TM) TA, the I-vation platform or any of SurModics’ other sustained drug delivery systems.”

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