UK company acquires Finnish technology for drug delivery

Acquisition

Archimedes Ltd, a specialty pharmaceutical company acquired a portfolio of intellectual property relating to a range of novel chemical derivatives of chitosan from Fennopharma Ltd, a technology commercialisation consultancy based in Kuopio, Finland.

The IP covers highly water-soluble forms of chitosan, a bioadhesive polymer derived from natural sources and will allow Archimedes toextend the applicability of ChiSys, a chitosan-based intranasal drug delivery technology. A particular advantage of the new technology is that the effectiveness of ChiSys is maintained at a range of physiological pH, enabling medicines that would currently be too unstable or insoluble to be delivered as a nasal spray.

Alan Smith, Vice President of R&D at Archimedes said, “This latest extension to our capability enables us to formulate the ChiSys platform with drugs across the entire range of physiological pH for the first time. Having worked successfully with Fennopharma to evaluate the potential of this technology, we are delighted to have brought it under our direct control.”