The agreement – financial terms of which were not disclosed – will see the MilliporeSigma sell PCAS 38-strong range of Expansorb polymers to small molecule drug manufacturers.
Poly lactic acid (PLA) and poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) polymers are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in combination with several drug products.
A MilliporeSigma spokeswoman told us "PCAS was selected because they share the same quality philosophy with Merck, and at the same time contribute with a very extensive, highly customizable product portfolio."
She added that customer demand as the driver for the deal, citing the desire to develop new patentable forumlations and improve patient compliance as major factors.
Peptide applications
Nanosphere and microsphere formulations based on PLGA polymers are also being studied for peptide delivery according to PCAS, which said that future applications are expected to include the development of targeted drug-containing nanoparticles using site-specific ligands
The MilliporeSigma spokeswoman said: "The use of PLGA based biodegradable polymers has been extensively studied for large molecules as well, not leading to any commercialized product larger than small hormones. Nevertheless there is promising work ongoing using modified versions with other co-monomers.
MilliporeSigma is the name of Germany based Merck's life science business in the US and Canada.