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Archimedes Licenses Chitosan Intellectual Property from Ploughshare Innovations to Extend Range of Technology
Deal Strengthens ChiSys Nasal Drug Delivery Platform
READING and Porton Down, 20 May 2008: Archimedes Development Ltd, a subsidiary of Archimedes Pharma Ltd the UK-based pan-European specialty pharmaceutical company, and Ploughshare Innovations today announce the licensing by Archimedes of a portfolio of patents relating to the use of chitosan for drug delivery. Ploughshare manages technology transfer on behalf of the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl), part of the UK Ministry of Defence. Commercial terms were not disclosed.
The technology licensed from Ploughshare centres on the use of a more water soluble form of chitosan, a bioadhesive polysaccharide excipient derived from natural sources. The new IP will allow Archimedes to extend the applicability of ChiSys®, Archimedes’ highly effective proprietary intranasal drug delivery technology and may further increase the utility of ChiSys in delivering vaccines in a non-invasive way. A particular advantage of the new technology is that antigens may be delivered as a spray at a physiological pH whilst maintaining their stability and effectiveness and potentially avoiding the need for cold chain supply
Pre-clinical and clinical studies with ChiSys have demonstrated that Archimedes’ technology can enhance the immune response generated by nasally administered vaccines to a range of viral diseases. ChiSys is currently being used in an extensive in-house programme on influenza and in a co-development programme with LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals to develop vaccines to Norovirus and Anthrax.
Alan Smith, Vice President, Research & Development, Archimedes Development said: “The ChiSys platform has already proven its potential in safely and effectively increasing the nasal bioavailability of a wide range of drugs by modulating the residence time on the nasal mucosa. This new addition to our capability is specifically aimed at developing still further our ability to promote immune responses to antigens which are difficult to give by other routes, thus further increasing ChiSys’ utility for vaccine development.”
Andy Tulloch, Chief Executive, Ploughshare Innovations said “Ploughshare is tasked by the UK MoD to license Dstl technologies to industry so that all the benefits of tax-payer funded research can be realised. The integration of Dstl’s oral vaccine technology with Archimedes’ ChiSys platform is another example of the successful commercialization of defence technology. The licence highlights both the commercial and social value of the work carried out at Dstl.”
Ends
For further information please contact:
Archimedes: Michael Clark, +44 (0)118 931 5050
Citigate Dewe Rogerson: Chris Gardner / Heather Keohane, +44 (0)207 638 9571
Ploughshare Innovations: Taj S. Mattu, +44 1980 590062
Notes to Editors
About Archimedes Development Limited
Archimedes Development Limited (ADL) is a subsidiary of Archimedes Pharma, a fast growing pharmaceutical company focused on meeting the needs of specialist prescribers in Europe. ADL is focused on partnering with companies which have compounds which could benefit from its suite of world-class drug delivery technologies. These comprise two cutting intra-nasal delivery technologies ChiSys® and PecSys™ as well TARGIT®, which is designed to deliver drugs to precise regions of the large intestine. These technologies are able to optimize the profile of a wide range of drugs by allowing targeted or controlled release.
ADL’s world-class drug delivery technologies have been validated in a series of partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. ADL has a flexible approach to its partnering activities and can apply its technologies to both existing and new therapeutic products.
ADL currently has development deals in place with a range of companies. Archimedes’ transmucosal enhancement technology ChiSys® is being used by Javelin Pharmaceuticals for its nasally-delivered morphine product, Rylomine™* and PecSys™, a novel pectin-based nasal drug delivery technology designed to maximize the potential of systemically absorbed drugs by enhancing drug performance and improving patient acceptance is also being used in other development deals.
ADL also has a co-development and commercialization agreement with Pharmalink AB under which the two parties are developing a TARGIT® formulation for an anti-inflammatory product candidate. The TARGIT® technology is also licensed to Invapharm for specific drug candidates for various indications.
About ChiSys®
ChiSys is Archimedes’ highly effective transmucosal enhancement technology, able to overcome many of the limitations of previous intranasal drug delivery systems. Intranasal drug delivery offers very fast symptom control and through the use of ChiSys, patients may have a more acceptable, convenient and effective means of delivering current injectable therapeutics.
ChiSys increases the residence time of drugs on mucosal surfaces and has been proven to increase nasal bioavailability of molecules with a wide range of physiochemical properties, including hydrophilic small molecules, peptides and proteins. This creates the opportunity for intranasal drug delivery for many types of drugs. ChiSys is based around chitosan, a bioadhesive polysaccharide excipient derived from natural sources.
ChiSys offers the potential to commercialize molecules previously thought to be clinically unviable by the nasal route in therapy areas such as pain, acute seizures, migraine, nausea and vomiting and panic agitation. Additionally, ChiSys has proven potential for vaccine delivery, with pre-clinical and clinical studies demonstrating that chitosan is able to enhance the immune response of nasally administered vaccines, including influenza and Norovirus.
A number of regulatory filings (IND/CTA) have been made for products using ChiSys technology and pre-clinical studies and clinical trials are currently in progress to develop ChiSys-based formulations in a broad range of therapeutic applications. ChiSys is the enabling technology behind Javelin Pharmaceutical’s Rylomine™*, an intranasal morphine product in development for post-operative pain, which recently successfully met the primary endpoint in a Phase III study.
* Rylomine is a trademark of Javelin Pharmaceuticals
About Ploughshare Innovations Ltd
Ploughshare Innovations Ltd (Ploughshare) is wholly owned by the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Defence. Ploughshare was formed to commercialize Dstl defence technologies in non-defence markets and there-by deliver value to Dstl, the MoD and the UK tax payer. Ploughshare has expanded its portfolio to include wider Dstl IP and is undertaking similar commercialization activities for other parts of the MoD.
www.ploughshareinnovations.com
For more information, please visit: www.archimedespharma.com.