Apogee Signs Exclusive License For Drug Preservation Technologies
Norwood, MA - Apogee Technology, Inc., an emerging micro-systems and nanotechnology company that designs, develops and commercializes medical devices and sensors, announced that it signed an exclusive license agreement with the University of Akron Research Foundation. This license agreement covers specific patents, patent applications and know how related to the encapsulation and preservation of therapeutics for the coating on its PyraDerm transdermal drug delivery platform. The Company also signed a one year sponsored research agreement to further develop and optimize the licensed technologies.
Dr. Nevenka Golubovic-Liakopoulos, Apogee's Director of Medical Products said, "The goal of our medical products group is to develop drug delivery systems that will allow patients to self administer a broad range of therapeutics thus avoiding the pain of conventional injections and many side affects associated with oral therapeutics. Our PyraDerm transdermal drug delivery solution consists of an array of micro-pyramids that penetrate the skin to a specific depth and a proprietary drug coating that releases therapeutics in a controlled manner. Over the past year we have demonstrated, in laboratory testing, that our micro-pyramid approach can be utilized to create micro pores in the skin and deliver both small and large molecule therapeutics. In conjunction with this effort, we have been working to develop therapeutic encapsulation, time release, dosage control and preservation technologies. Akron's patented technologies align with these internal research and development goals and combined with our efforts, we will integrate these technologies into our PyraDerm solution to improve therapeutic preservation and delivery capabilities.
"We believe that PyraDerm can offer significant differentiation and advantages over other drug delivery platforms. By adopting the PyraDerm drug delivery approach, a pharmaceutical company may be able to extend the patent life of a drug. Also, they may gain a competitive advantage by offering a non-injectable solution, or limit liability by minimizing potential adverse side effects from large systemic dosing. In addition, we believe our approach will be able to deliver large molecule biotech therapeutics to specific target cells thereby reducing the required dosage while improving efficacy."
David Meyers, Apogee's Chief Operating Officer said, "Our investment in this important technology is another step in our strategy of adding value to our base technologies. We started with the development of a transdermal drug delivery solution using our micro-fabrication design and manufacturing expertise to build our micro-pyramid arrays. Now, we are building upon this base by including a proprietary drug coating incorporating Akron's technology that releases and preserves therapeutics. We believed these combined technologies will address unmet needs of the drug delivery market."
SOURCE: Apogee Technology, Inc.