Drug delivery firm West Pharmaceutical Services ($WST) has signed a technology agreement with biotech giant Amgen ($AMGN), partnering to develop new injectable formulations for Amgen's therapies.
The two companies didn't disclose the terms of the deal, but what attracted Amgen was West's Daikyo Crystal Zenith technology, a polymer-based injectable platform the company has licensed from Japanese pharma packaging outfit Daikyo Seiko.
The ready-to-fill platform uses Daikyo's proprietary Flurotec barrier film to create an elastic polymer container, providing for sterile, effective and reliable delivery of injectable drugs, West said. And the tech's versatility is exactly what Amgen needs to advance its therapeutics, according to company brass. "As a company that values innovation, we have been impressed with the innovations of West and Daikyo in container-closure systems," Vice President Martin VanTrieste said.
While Amgen didn't specify which of its drugs it has in mind for West's platform, the company is hardly the first big drugmaker to seek out new delivery techs to improve on-the-market treatments. Just this month, Allergan ($AGN) signed a deal with American Medical Systems ($AMMD) to develop a needle-free formulation of Botox, and, in April, Novo Nordisk ($NVO) inked a $100 million deal to use drug delivery firm Caisson's polymer-based capsules to develop new therapies.
- read West's release