Sepracor Inc. is a research-based pharmaceutical company dedicated to treating and preventing human disease by discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative pharmaceutical products that are directed toward serving unmet medical needs. Our drug development program has yielded a portfolio of pharmaceutical products and candidates with a focus on the treatment of respiratory and central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Our commercialization efforts are carried out by our U.S.-based primary care and specialty-oriented sales force, as well as through out-licensing partnerships.
We currently commercialize five products in the U.S.: LUNESTA® (eszopiclone); XOPENEX HFA® (levalbuterol tartrate) Inhalation Aerosol, a hydrofluoroalkane (HFA) metered-dose inhaler (MDI); XOPENEX® (levalbuterol HCl) Inhalation Solution; BROVANA® (arformoterol tartrate) Inhalation Solution; and OMNARISTM (ciclesonide) Nasal Spray, which we licensed from Nycomed GmbH (Nycomed) in January 2008 and commercially launched in April 2008.
Sepracor has also engaged in out-licensing agreements that include: Schering-Plough for CLARINEX® (desloratadine); sanofi-aventis for ALLEGRA® (fexofenadine HCl); and UCB Pharma for XYZAL® /XUSALTM (levocetirizine).
Sepracor is pursuing expansion of the LUNESTA franchise beyond the U.S. and made significant strides in accomplishing this objective in 2007. In the second half of 2007, Sepracor entered into an agreement with Eisai Co. Ltd. for development and commercialization of eszopiclone in Japan and in September 2007, we entered into an alliance with GlaxoSmithKline for international (excluding the U.S., Canada, Japan and Mexico) commercialization of eszopiclone under the brand name LUNIVIA®.
We continue to explore new opportunities for growing our pharmaceutical pipeline and our business, and in late 2007 and early 2008, significantly expanded our portfolio through strategic corporate development and licensing agreements. These agreements have provided us with an anti-epileptic candidate, eslicarbazepine acetate, licensed from Bial-Portela & Ca, S.A. (Bial), for which we are currently preparing a New Drug Application (NDA) for submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), anticipated at the end of 2008 or early 2009; as well as access to the ciclesonide franchise for the U.S. market. Under our agreement with Nycomed for the ciclesonide franchise, we obtained the rights to commercialize ALVESCO® (ciclesonide) Inhalation Aerosol in the U.S., and we are currently targeting a second-half 2008 introduction of this product. Under the Nycomed agreement, we also obtained the rights to three additional ciclesonide product candidates in various stages of development, which served to strengthen our respiratory portfolio.
We continue to broaden our research and development efforts beyond development of our currently marketed products. Our proprietary pipeline also continues to advance. Currently focused primarily on CNS and respiratory disorders, our product candidates are targeted toward the treatment of depression, anxiety, pain, asthma, COPD and allergic rhinitis and are in various stages of development ranging from preclinical to Phase II. We expect to augment our current clinical pipeline with advances from drug discovery, which has produced several new chemical entity leads in preclinical development, some of which are expected to enter the clinic in the near-term.
Our corporate headquarters are located in Marlborough, Massachusetts.