Saint-Prex, Switzerland, 23 February 2015 – Ferring Pharmaceuticals announced today that it has signed an agreement with CTCBIO Inc. of Seoul, South Korea to acquire rights to a novel oral drug delivery technology.
Ferring's success in developing oral formulations for peptide drugs including the world's first orally active peptide, desmopressin (MINIRIN®) and the fast dissolving lyophilisate (MINIRIN® Melt), is well known. CTCBIO is a growing specialist company that has developed successful manufacturing technologies for more than 30 different drugs, including treatments for dementia and asthma.
"Ferring has been a pioneer in the development of novel oral drug delivery technologies," says Per Falk, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Ferring, "Our portfolio of peptide therapeutics make us an attractive partner for speciality technology-based companies like CTCBIO to collaborate on new approaches for oral drug delivery of peptides and proteins."
"Keeping the active pharmaceutical ingredient stable and secure is critical," explained Dr. Jeon, Hongryeol, Vice President of CTCBIO. "This technology makes this possible and is particularly useful for hydrophilic macromolecules like peptides and proteins while offering the advantage of oral administration."
Under the agreement involving an undisclosed up-front payment, milestone and royalty terms, the two companies will collaborate to develop prototype formulations for in-vitro and in-vivo testing and the subsequent up-scaling required to manufacture the technology to meet worldwide good manufacturing practice (GMP) requirements.