Japan's Nitto Denko, a diversified materials manufacturer, has agreed a partnership with global pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo that will use Nitto's PassPort active transdermal drug delivery technology.
Under the agreement, Nitto will provide exclusive rights to the PassPort system for an undisclosed Daiichi Sankyo compound and will support clinical development of the drug candidate in the US.
Nitto will manufacture the transdermal patches and device components associated with the product.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The PassPort system provides transdermal delivery of therapeutics that are typically limited to invasive and often painful injection or infusion methods. As well as being convenient for both patients and carers, Nitto’s technology aims to provide a new option for compounds with administration issues.
Nitto's system combines thermal microporation technology – to painlessly create micropores on the surface of the skin – with advanced drug patch technology. It enables efficient delivery of pharmaceuticals including small molecules, peptides, proteins, carbohydrates and oligonucleotides. The result is needle-free administration of drugs that are currently only available through injection or infusion.
The PassPort system controls drug delivery by optimising several parameters including the number of micropores, patch size and formulation. The system may be designed to produce either immediate or sustained delivery profiles that can mimic conventional injection products. Using a small handheld PassPort device, patients can conveniently self-administer medication since it is easy to apply and the micropores are safely created within a few milliseconds.
