A Medical Device Daily

Hydromer (Branchburg, New Jersey), said that it has entered into a two-year coating services agreement with Allium, a company that makes stents and catheters for the urinary and the gastrointestinal tracts.

Hydromer has agreed to apply its hydrophilic coatings on various Pebax plastic stent placement catheters under strict FDA cGMP and ISO 13485:2003 conditions. Additionally, Allium has agreed to purchase all their priming and coating services from Hydromer for the specific products described in the agreement.

These catheters will be coated using Hydromer-designed and built catheter-coating machines.

"We are delighted with our new relationship and to having our Hydromer coating technology applied to these stent placement catheters," said Martin von Dyck, executive VP of Hydromer. "Presently our client is marketing these catheters in Europe with plans to seek U.S. FDA approval in the near future."

In other agreement news:

• Carrington Laboratories (Irving, Texas) said that its subsidiary, DelSite Biotechnologies, entered into a technology evaluation rights license agreement with a biotechnology company for transdermal delivery of vaccines using GelSite polymer, DelSite's high-molecular-weight anionic polysaccharide which is produced under cGMP with high purity at a kilogram scale. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

DelSite will provide GelSite and assistance in formulation development of a transdermal vaccine. Transdermal vaccination avoids needle sticks, pain or tissue damage and offers advantages over conventional vaccination regimens. The objective of the program is to develop an effective vaccine formulation that may further enhance the immune response following through-the-skin delivery.

Additionally, DelSite initiated work with the National Institutes of Health to evaluate a modification of GelSite for use as the antigen for a typhoid vaccine, and with the National Cancer Institute for development of needle-free nasal powder delivery of future HPV vaccines.

• Biotronik (Lake Oswego, Oregon) said that it has been awarded a full-service cardiac rhythm management (CRM) contract with Premier Purchasing Partners (San Diego), a healthcare purchasing alliance. The contract allows Premier members to purchase Biotronik pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization devices at "exceptional" savings.

Biotronik makes cardiovascular medical devices.

Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates healthcare purchasing networks.