Joint venture takes Profile towards US presence
company Breath opens up a new market valued at $1 billion
Profile Therapeutics has formalised a joint venture with Breath Ltd that opens the door to the roll out of its drug delivery technologies in North America.
The deal focuses on the development of a range of added-value respiratory drugs based on generic compounds supplied by Breath and Profile's Miniature Intelligent Inhalation system.
MIA comes under the banner of Profile's Adaptive Aerosol Delivery inhaler systems, that automatically respond to individual patients' breathing patterns to deliver a precise dose and have been shown under long-term clinical trials to significantly enhance patient compliance to therapy.
The first drug formats to be marketed will include the mainstay treatments for severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including albuterol (salbutamol), ipratropium bromide and an inhaled corticosteroid, and should start to roll out in the first half of 2005. Profile has already launched its first product, Promixin (colistimethate sodium) for cystic fibrosis, in the UK.
"Profile estimates the value of drugs in nebule form to be in excess of $1.0 billion (€883m) per annum and, through working with Breath, hopes to be able to secure a significant percentage of this market," said the company.
Breath is the respiratory and sterile drug subsidiary of Arrow Group, a company set up by former Merck Generics chairman Tony Tabatznik to distribute and market generic drugs with subsidiaries in Europe, North America and Asia.
