Medherant hires Laboratoires Plasto Santé to make ibuprofen pain-patch for trials

08-May-2017 - Last updated on 09-May-2017 at 11:09 GMT

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Ibuprofen patch developer Medherant Ltd. has hired France-based contractor Laboratoires Plasto Santé (LPS) to make the product for clinical trials due to start this year.

A Medherant spokesman told us, while LPS is an experienced patch manufacturer with a large amount of the relevant production technology, the firm had "transferred certain specific technologies related to the TEPI Patch Technology to Laboratoires Plasto Santé."

LPS said it will expand patch production capacity at its manufacturing and R&D facility in Bourgogne, near Dijon.

Managing director Bruno Loiseau said: “We are expanding our patch production capacity and will support Medherant with our expertise in transdermal delivery systems as they bring TEPI Patch ibuprofen to market and begin clinical studies with other products.”

Medherant’s TEPI patches consist of a transparent layer that is stuck to the skin with an adhesive polymer into which the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) - in this case ibuprofen - is incorporated.

The adhesive on which the TEPI patches rely is exclusively licensed for transdermal use from Bostik, a unit of France’s leading chemicals producer Arkema.

Ibuprofen

A study recently published in European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy linked use of ibuprofen to increased incidence of cardiac arrest.

The report reignited concerns about the availability of ibuprofen pills over-the-counter (OTC), with experts advising patients to minimize use of the drug.

Medherant cited the concerns about oral versions of the drug as a point of differentiation for its own transdermal product.

The spokesman told us “one of the advantages of topical delivery is that it avoids the gut and thereby avoids systemic effects. It is well known that topical ibuprofen delivery very little of the drug systemically, but rather delivers to the local site of action, thereby bypassing the cardiac risks associated with orally administered ibuprofen."

He added: "The transdermal patch releases the drug at a constant rate over 24hrs. The rate of delivery can be varied by altering the concentration of drug and other excipients include in the formulation."