BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Vectura Group plc and Unilever Ventures Ltd. announced the spinout of PharmaKodex Ltd. to develop drugs and over-the-counter products based on a number of oral and transdermal delivery technologies that the companies have transferred to the new venture.

The CEO of PharmaKodex is Rod Richards, who led vaccines company Microscience Ltd. from its formation until its sale to Emergent Biosolutions Inc. in an all-paper deal valued at $73 million in June 2005.

"I finished working on Microscience at the end of last summer, but it has taken a while to put PharmaKodex together and sort everything out," Richards told BioWorld International.

The inspiration behind the formation of PharmaKodex was his brother Andy Richards, who knew that both Vectura and Unilever had delivery technologies that were languishing undeveloped in their respective labs.

"[Andy] was aware of the Vectura assets and that there was an opportunity to do something with them. Vectura's finance and time is all going into pulmonary delivery," Richards said. John Staniforth, former professor at Bath University and inventor of the technologies, is leaving his post as chief scientific officer at Vectura to take up the same role at PharmaKodex.

Richards said the company has been financed by both Unilever and Vectura, though he declined to give details. He now is embarking on a formal Series A private round to raise between £5 million to £10 million (US$18.8 million).

The company will focus on re-purposing existing drugs for new indications, or to provide a new route of administration. The pipeline consists of seven prescription products and six over-the-counter products. Richards said the most advanced, an over-the-counter product, which is part of an existing collaboration, should reach the market in 2008. The prescription products primarily are in pain and neurology.

Pharmakodex will operate as a virtual company with a formal relationship with both Vectura and Unilever to carry out laboratory research on its behalf.

The technologies assigned to PharmaKodex from Vectura include a solid syrup technology capable of rapid dissolution, controlled drug delivery and a patchless transdermal delivery system capable of delivering high payloads. Meanwhile Unilever has transferred a particle formulation/solubilization nanotechnology and a novel encapsulation technology.

"Vectura has always believed there to be value in its oral and dermal technologies," said Chris Blackwell, Vectura CEO. "We believe the spinout of these technologies to PharmaKodex is the ideal way to retain a share of that value."