Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1032386
Recent news items on companies that develop, manufacture, and provide products and services that support development of orally inhaled and nasal drug products. 8 OctOber 2018 Inhalation Industry news Vectura successfully concludes two pediatric asthma studies C H I P P E N H A M , U N I T E D K I N G D O M — A c c o r d i n g t o Pharma Times Online, Vectura has successfully concluded two pediat- ric studies to support the potential use of its asthma drug/device VR647, budesonide inhalation suspension, in its proprietary inha- lation system. e product could be an alternative treatment for asthma in children in the US mar- ket. The first study examined the p h a r m a c o k i n e t i c s i n a s t h m a patients aged four to eight years. The second was a methodology study to evaluate the ability of chil- dren aged one to four years to use the VR647 inhalation system with a mouthpiece. According to Vec- tura, the studies suggest that the VR647 inhalation system may reduce delivery times and poten- tially reduce steroid dose in young asthma patients compared to mar- keted nebulized treatments. The company is looking forward to outlining Phase III plans with the US FDA at the end of 2018. Emergent BioSolutions will acquire Adapt Pharma ® DUBLIN, IRELAND—Adapt Pharma has announced it will be acquired by Emergent BioSolu- tions. Adapt distributes Narcan ® (naloxone HCl) Nasal Spray, an FDA-approved emergency treat- m e n t f o r o p i o i d o v e r d o s e , t o health agencies, first responders and retail pharmacies. It also has a development pipeline of potential opioid overdose and addiction treatment options. Emergent focuses on development, supply and provision of medical counter- measures for accidental, inten- tional and naturally occurring public health threats as well as emerging infectious diseases. In a company statement, Seamus Mul- ligan, Chairman and Chief Execu- tive Officer of Adapt explained that Adapt will continue to focus on the opioid crisis as part of Emergent's device business unit and all employees and facilities will be retained. Daniel J. Abdun- Nabi, CEO of Emergent BioSolu- tions, said, "We look forward to welcoming the Adapt team so together we can further expand awareness and availability of this potentially life-saving treatment against this serious public health t h r e a t . " T h e a c q u i s i t i o n i s expected to be finalized during the fourth quarter of 2018. Emulate and AstraZeneca form agreement on organs- on-chips technology B O S T O N , M A S S A C H U - S E T T S — E m u l a t e , I n c . h a s announced a collaborative partner- ship with AstraZeneca's Innovative Medicines and Early Development (IMED) Biotech Unit to embed its organs-on-chips technology in the laboratories of the IMED Drug Safety organization. The agree- ment aims to accelerate develop- ment of the organs-on-chips tech- nology and testing within a phar- maceutical organization, as Emu- late plans to co-locate scientists within AstraZeneca's laboratories. e companies began collaborat- ing on the technology in 2013, w h i c h i n c l u d e s o r g a n - c h i p s , instrumentation and software apps. In the future, the system is expected to reduce the use of ani- mals in research as well as the cost and time of discovery and develop- ment. The initial focus will use a liver-chip for safety testing of drug candidates across the AstraZeneca pipeline with the goal of submit- ting data within the regulatory framework for new drugs. The agreement also allows the two companies to develop functional- ity of three other Emulate organ- chips, including a lung-chip and lung-tumor-chip. Emulate has also announced it has secured new funding led by Founders Fund. e proceeds will expand its prod- uct suite and facilitate commercial- ization of the Human Emulation System TM as a comprehensive plat- form for use across the drug discov- ery and development process. Precision Technology with an Intuitive Edge NEWTEC NEWTEC NEWTEC DOSE DOSE COUNTER COUNTER COUNTER FOR MDI'S FOR MDI'S FOR MDI'S FOR MDI'S www.newtecpro.com info@newtecpro.com