Jeiven joins HepaLife team in pain patch development
HepaLife subsidiary, Alliqua BioMedical, has retained Jeiven to assist in its product development
HepaLife Technologies Inc, a New York-based biomedical products company focused on the development and manufacturing of proprietary drug delivery and liver health technologies, has announced its intention to pursue the development of a transdermal pain patch.
The company’s subsidiary, Alliqua BioMedical, Inc, recently retained Jeiven Pharmaceutical Consulting Inc to assist it in this new product development.
Through this partnership, HepaLife said that Alliqua intends to aggressively pursue a generic version of an existing pain management patch for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). PHN is associated with shingles, which is a rising medical problem in the US and around the world as countries continue to struggle with increasingly elderly populations.
‘We believe that our existing expertise in manufacturing these products, combined with the developmental and regulatory experience that Jeiven brings to this project will prove invaluable, and will help us realise commercialisation in a timely and cost effective manner,’ said Matthew Harriton, ceo of Alliqua. ‘Utilising HepaLife's proprietary hydrogel technology, we believe Alliqua can become a high quality, low cost producer of this transdermal pain patch.’
‘We are excited to join the Alliqua team in this project. Alliqua benefits from an extensive knowledge base and a proven expertise in manufacturing specialty medical products including components for transdermal patches,’ said Ashutosh Sharma, vice-president and cso at Jeiven. ‘By combining Jeiven's extensive resources and decades of experience in pharmaceutical product development, with HepaLife's proprietary technology, we believe Alliqua has a great opportunity for a relatively low risk product launch with the possibility for significant gain in market share.’
Management estimates that the total US market for pain management pharmaceuticals, exclusive of over-the-counter products, totalled in excess of $20 bn in 2009, with the market for the existing prescription pain patch in excess of $1 bin in the US alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1 million cases of shingles occur in the US annually, and approximately 20% of shingles cases result in PHN.
HepaLife's patch technology enables the delivery of drugs and active ingredients directly through the stratum corneum, avoiding 'first pass' of the digestive system and the liver.
