Bayer said it wants to use DelSiTech's novel silica-based biodrug delivery technology in the wound care setting, but would not reveal any more details about the project.
Under the terms of the agreement, Bayer Innovation gets exclusive rights to use DelSiTech's technology in wound and other undisclosed applications. In return, DelSiTech receives a signing fee, milestone payments and royalties covering future sales of products using the technology.
DelSiTech said the technology, which is covered by nine patent families combines their 'know-how' in silica technology and nanotechnology. So far, it has been used to encapsulate and control the release of labile viruses and proteins in preclinical testing. It's release times are flexible, in that they can be adjusted by process parameters to last over days, weeks or even months, depending on the application.
"This technology is especially suitable for local delivery, which could be an advantage in cancer treatment where the drug delivery dosage form is inserted close to the site of action (non-removable tumour) maximising the drug dose at the site of action and minimising possible systemic side effects," Harry Jalonen, CEO of DelSiTech, told In-PharmaTechnologist.com.
Finnish university researchers developed the first generation technology, while DelSitech developed the second and third generation. The company has designed their soft encapsulation method to preserve the biological activity of biopharmaceuticals, such as proteins, polysaccharides and viruses. Biopharmaceuticals is a growing market, with one-third of all new drugs coming out now being biologics, said the company.
"We are proud to have a global player like Bayer as our customer. Wound care is an interesting indication area with high unmet medical need. At the same time we are happy to find new applications for our technology, which originally was developed for controlled drug release," said Jalonen.
"This agreement is important for Bayer Innovation because it enables the complementation of our technologies with the respective drug delivery technology of DelSiTech, as such paving the way for broad applications of our pioneering new possibility for wound treatments," said Detlef Wollweber, managing director of Bayer Innovation.