Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Names Garth Boehm, Ph.D. VP of Modified Release Dosage Form Development


PALATINE, Ill., March 26, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:ACUR) is pleased to announce that Garth Boehm, Ph.D. has been named Vice President, Modified Release Dosage Form Development. Dr. Boehm, is currently employed as Vice President of Product Development at Actavis Pharmaceuticals and is expected to commence employment with Acura in May 2009.

Andy Reddick, Acura's President and CEO said: "We are delighted that Dr. Boehm will be joining our talented research, development, and senior management teams. With more than 25 years of pharmaceutical experience, Garth is one of the industry's most accomplished extended release (ER) dosage form development scientists. He has authored or co-authored multiple issued and pending patent applications relating to ER dosage forms and abuse deterrent product formulations. He was the primary driver in the formulation development and manufacturing scale-up of the leading marketed US brand of morphine sulfate ER capsules and co-inventor of the technology utilized in morphine sulfate and naltrexone HCl ER capsules, a product intended to be abuse deterrent, currently pending FDA approval. Dr. Boehm has been an advisor to the FDA regarding complex product content uniformity issues and over the years been responsible in leadership roles for a wide array of scientific disciplines including product formulation and development, quality assurance and quality control. Garth and his scientific teams have been responsible for dozens of US regulatory submissions and subsequent FDA approvals for brand and generic products. In his role at Acura as Vice President of Modified Dosage Form Development, Dr. Boehm will report directly to me and work closely with Al Brzeczko, Ph.D., Acura's Vice President of Technical Affairs. We look forward to working with Dr. Boehm as we remain intensely focused on developing a broad array of proprietary products with unique abuse deterrent features and benefits."

About Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in research, development and manufacture of innovative Aversion(r) (abuse deterrent) Technology and related product candidates.

The Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4847

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