Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative treatments for chronic pain, announced today that it has raised $22.5 million in a Series B financing round led by Longitude Capital and Skyline Ventures. Series A investors Frazier Healthcare Ventures and Boston Millennia Partners also participated in the round.

In connection with the financing, David Hirsch, MD, PhD of Longitude Capital and Stephen Hoffman MD, PhD of Skyline will join the Collegium board of directors that includes Patrick Heron of Frazier, Patrick Fortune, PhD of Boston Millennia and Michael Heffernan, the Company's Founder and CEO.

The Series B financing will support the execution of the Company's full development program for COL-003, a tamper-resistant, extended-release oxycodone product utilizing its proprietary DETERx® technology. "We believe that with the on-going national epidemic of prescription drug abuse there remains a significant unmet clinical need for tamper-resistant formulations that can mitigate abuse/misuse of opioid products. We have initiated our Phase III trial for COL-003 and are working to complete the remaining development activities required for regulatory submission", stated Michael Heffernan, CEO, Collegium. The Company expects to file the NDA for COL-003 in 2013. The current financing will support the Company through FDA approval of COL-003.

Both chronic pain and prescription opioid abuse are highly prevalent. According to a recent Institute of Medicine report, approximately 116 million Americans suffer from chronic pain each year, and many of these patients are untreated or undertreated due to the significant concerns with the safety, abuse, and diversion of prescription opioids. Opioid formulations that incorporate barriers to common forms of tampering are an emerging component of risk management in prescription opioid therapy. "We were attracted to Collegium by the potential to develop an important and unique product that helps address the enormous and growing issue of prescription drug abuse. The DETERx technology provides market leading tamper-resistant properties that would substantially raise the bar for tamper resistant opiates", stated David Hirsch of Longitude.

About DETERx® Technology

The DETERx® drug delivery platform consists of a multi-particulate matrix formulation in a capsule. While developed primarily to provide tamper resistant properties to protect against common methods of tampering such as chewing, crushing, snorting and extraction for IV injection, the multi-particulate design is expected to enable patients with difficulty swallowing to open the capsule and administer the contents on food or via a gastronomy tube, while maintaining the extended release properties of the product. DETERx technology can be used with drugs that are commonly abused such as opioids and amphetamines, as well as drugs that have narrow therapeutic windows that would benefit from protection against misuse such as breaking, crushing, grinding or dissolving the product. The formulation platform is covered by US and international patents and patent applications.

About Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc.

Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing a portfolio of products that incorporate its patent protected DETERx® formulation platform for the treatment of chronic pain. The DETERx oral drug delivery technology provides extended release delivery, unique tamper resistant properties, and flexible dose administration options.