A Medical Device Daily

SurModics (Eden Prairie, Minnesota) reported that its Brookwood Pharmaceuticals subsidiary has licensed lipid nanoparticle technology from PharmaSol (Berlin, Germany).

Brookwood has exclusive rights to all pharmaceutical applications of the technology.

The PharmaSol technology can be used to formulate drugs into nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), which, according to the company, offer a number of advantages over other drug delivery nanotechnologies such as liposomes, emulsions and solid lipid nanoparticles.

These advantages include increased drug loading, improved drug incorporation and the ability to produce suspensions of higher solids content, allowing for decreased dose size and products with longer shelf life. NLC formulations of drugs can be administered orally, as well as through intravenous or subcutaneous injection.

Brookwood is offering this technology to potential customers, while also generating additional data to accelerate product development of the NLC drug delivery platform.

"This license further broadens the drug delivery technology offerings of SurModics and Brookwood and complements our existing portfolio," said Arthur Tipton, PhD, president of Brookwood. "Our microparticle technology has demonstrated multi-day to multi-month delivery; incorporating this NLC technology can enable shorter-duration injectable delivery, targeted delivery and high value oral applications for nearly all therapeutic areas."

"NLC technology broadens the nanotechnologies that we can offer to customers in need of drug delivery solutions," said Thomas Tice, PhD, VP of research of Brookwood. "Many promising drug candidates do not reach commercialization because they will not dissolve in the stomach or intestinal tract. NLCs are designed to increase solubility of poorly soluble drugs, thus improving oral bioavailability. Additionally, injectable NLC formulations can time-release drugs for up to seven days."

Nanotechnology, sometimes referred to as the science of the extremely small, has across-the-board economic and quality-of-life implications. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; human hair is approximately 80,000 nanometers wide.

Nanoscale materials are currently used in electronic, cosmetic, automotive and medical products. Many more products, future technologies and manufacturing techniques involving nanoscience are being researched and developed around the world.

SurModics is a provider of surface modification and drug delivery technologies to the healthcare industry.

Luminex (Austin, Texas) and ViroNovative (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) reported that the companies have signed a licensing agreement that gives Luminex worldwide rights to use ViroNovative's human metapneumovirus (hMPV) intellectual property in the xTAG Respiratory Viral Panel (RVP).

Rights to ViroNovative's hMPV intellectual property will be extended to Luminex's distributors and end-user customers around the world.

"Having this license as part of our xTAG RVP assay is important to us as it allows our customers to use this cutting-edge test without the need to individually secure rights to this intellectual property," said Jeremy Bridge-Cook, vice president of Luminex Molecular Diagnostics.

Luminex's xTAG RVP received FDA 510(k) clearance on Jan. 3. The test was cleared for the detection and identification of 12 viruses and viral subtypes that are together responsible for more than 85% of respiratory viral infections. xTAG RVP is the first multiplexed nucleic acid test for respiratory viruses cleared for in vitro diagnostic use by the FDA and is the first test cleared by FDA for the detection of hMPV.

"This agreement will help promote diagnosis of hMPV, an important virus that infects the respiratory tract and causes significant clinical impact in humans, especially in young children," said James Simon, COO of ViroNovative.

Luminex makes biological testing technologies with applications throughout the diagnostic and life sciences industries.