The alliance, which was announced late yesterday, will focus on the early-stage development of injectable therapeutics and provides Bioject with “preferred partner” access to MPI’ range of testing capabilities.
The Michigan-based preclinical contract research organisation (CRO) services include preclinical safety and toxicology analysis which will be applied to Biojects in-progress and future development programmes.
Perhaps more importantly, the partnership deal also offers MPI Research the opportunity to provide Bioject’s needle-free injection therapy systems (NFITS) technology as an alternate delivery option to client drug manufacturers it works with.
This part of the accord is significant because demand for needle-free delivery systems is expected to increase dramatically over the next few years, particularly as the biologic drug market continues to grow.
Kalorama Information was one of the observers to predict such an expansion, forecasting in a September report that the needle-free technology market will grow to be worth $2.7bn in the medium term.
Vaccine market
Bioject and MPI were also positive that the alliance will generate other growth opportunities, highlighting the global vaccines market as an example.
The firm’s predicted that their alliance “increases the possibility that [they will be able] to secure government sponsored grants or funding directed at improvements in drug and device or vaccine and device based treatments.”
Bioject CEO Ralph Makar said the deal “Allows each partner to leverage the strengths, resources and technologies available that we believe will lead to additional new business opportunities for both companies.”
MPI Research CEO Bill Parfet, agreed, suggesting the firms “share an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that creates a synergy vital to our industry.”