SkyePharma Stops Feasibility Study On Drug Delivery Systems With Dr Reddy’s
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Mumbai - London-based specialized drug delivery technology company SkyePharma announced as part of its management statement Oct. 27 that the collaborative feasibility project with Dr Reddy's Labs has been stopped pending further assessment
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Mumbai - London-based specialized drug delivery technology company SkyePharma announced as part of its management statement Oct. 27 that the collaborative feasibility project with Dr Reddy's Labs has been stopped pending further assessment. Dr Reddy's and SkypePharma agreed in February 2008 to undertake a feasibility study of a product utilizing two of SkyePharma's proprietary drug delivery systems. In its interim management report on the status of several research compounds, SkyePharma announced it halted work on SKP 2045. According to the original agreement, the cost of study for the project was to be borne by Dr Reddy's. SkyePharma was to receive an upfront payment, and if the feasibility study had come out successful, full development activities were to begin later during the year. SkyePharma develops new formulations of known molecules to provide clinical advantage and lifecycle extension. Using proprietary drug delivery technologies, SkyePharma has 12 approved products for oral, inhalation and topical delivery. SkyePharma has partnerships with several big pharma companies like Abbott, Novartis, Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. Dr Reddy's has trimmed its pipeline of new chemical entities during the last few months but retained two experimental drugs for diabetes and cancer in human trials. RheoScience of Denmark, which is developing the anti-diabetes drug named balaglitazone, was reported to have encountered financial problems. (PharmAsia News, Oct 6, 2008). As part of its latest second quarter earnings, Dr Reddy's Labs indicated that its partnering business for research is showing signs of slowing down primarily owing to the credit squeeze witnessed by small- and medium-sized pharma and biotech players in U.S. and Europe. Vikas Dandekar ([email protected]) |