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The DDR: Market news and trends
During August 2006, PharmaDeals® Agreements recorded a total of 21 deals relating to drug delivery, 13 more than the total for the previous month.
Eleven of the deals involved start up companies, five were between established and start up companies and 4 were between start up companies and academic bodies; one deal was made between two global companies. A wide range of deal types were represented, including manufacture and supply agreements, asset acquisitions, marketing and distributions deals, a joint venture and business acquisition. However, the largest number, 6 in total, were licensing agreements while a further 4 were co-development and collaborative transactions. Seven deals involved neurological drug delivery devices, while other main interest areas included respiratory, research and anti-cancer. Nanotechnology, inhalable devices, a cream, injectables and a toothpaste were among the numerous innovative drug delivery devices and technologies represented among August's deals.
Global companies were involved in only one of August's drug delivery deals. On 14 August, Schering-Plough entered into a global collaboration with Novartis to develop and commercialise a once-daily inhaled fixed-dose combination therapy for the treatment of asthma and COPD (Deal no. 25006). The product will combine Schering-Plough's once-daily inhaled corticosteroid mometasone and Novartis' once-daily beta2-agonist indacaterol. Both companies will share development costs and will co-promote the combination therapy, which will include, amongst other inhalers, Schering-Plough's Twisthaler®. This is an easy-to-use inhaler that operates without a propellant, thus eliminating the need for hand-breath coordination.
August's second respiratory agreement involved a start up company, an established company and two academic bodies (Deal no. 25158). On 31 August, the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the US NIH awarded Aktiv-Dry a grant of US$0.85 M to develop an inhalable nicotine vaccine to help smokers give up permanently. Aktiv-Dry, a biotechnology company which develops inhalable aerosol vaccines, will be assisted by Nabi Pharmaceuticals and the Minnesota Medical Research Foundation. The aim of the collaboration is that Aktiv-Dry's needlefree technology will be used to deliver NicVAX, Nabi's proprietary investigational vaccine being developed to treat nicotine addiction. NicVAX is designed to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies that bind to nicotine and prevent it from entering the brain.
Four deals were made in August which have a potential benefit for cancer sufferers. On 3 August, BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI) and Meda entered into a collaboration to develop and commercialise BDSI's flagship BEMA™ Fentanyl product in Europe (Deal no. 24924). BEMA™ Fentanyl, a Phase III product currently being developed for the treatment of 'breakthrough' cancer pain, is delivered using the oral BEMA™ disc, which delivers the drug through the inner cheek by placing the disk between the cheek and gum. Under the terms of the agreement, Meda will exclusively commercialise the product in Europe while BDSI will retain all development and commercial rights elsewhere. On the same day, BDSI purchased from QLT USA all of the non-US rights to the BEMA™ drug delivery technology (Deal no. 24931). Also on 3 August, start up companies Medical Discoveries and Eucodis entered into a licensing agreement for Medical Discoveries' formestane cream, a topical steroidal treatment for breast cancer (Deal no. 24947). The agreement provides Eucodis, an Austrian biotechnology company, with exclusive European development rights in exchange for an upfront licence fee and milestone payments totalling approximately US$2.5 M. Formestane cream inhibits the local production of oestrogen, which is a key signal of tumour growth and progression in more than 90% of breast cancer cases. On 21 August, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals granted Calando Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Arrowhead Research, an IntergeRx™ licence to discover, develop and commercialise a RNAi therapeutic using a synthetic siRNA directed towards a cancer target (Deal no. 25073).
On 25 August, PharmaSpritz entered into a joint venture arrangement with AZ Technologies (Deal no. 25121). AZ Technologies is the patent holder for the SlimSpritz formula and has developed two toothpaste products: F.A.S.T. (first appetite suppressant toothpaste) and Pearly Dreams toothpaste (a sleep inducing formula). PharmaSpritz will be responsible for the manufacturing and marketing of the two AZ Technologies products, both of which work through the transmucosal absorption of herbal ingredients.