SkyePharma delivery technologies for respiratory drugs to feature at two international conferences

SkyePharma PLC has announced that its proprietary delivery technologies for respiratory drugs will be presented later this month at two international conferences, one in the UK and one in America.

At the Respiratory Drug Delivery IX conference, to be held on 25-29 April in Palm Desert, California, SkyePharma will be presenting several posters on its dry powder and metered-dose aerosol inhaler technologies.

SkyePharma and Novartis will jointly present two posters on Foradil(R) Certihaler(R), a multi-dose dry powder inhaler version of Novartis' long-acting bronchodilator Foradil (formoterol). SkyePharma developed not only the Skyehaler(TM) dry powder inhaler device (to be marketed by Novartis as the Certihaler(R) for this specific product) but also the formulation technology that ensures accurate and consistent dosing.

In addition SkyePharma will present other posters on the successful delivery of macromolecules with the SkyeHaler(TM) device and on stability data for the combination product Flutiform(TM) in a metered-dose aerosol inhaler using a hydrofluoroalkane ("HFA") propellant. Flutiform(TM) is SkyePharma's proprietary fixed-dose combination of the bronchodilator formoterol with the inhaled corticosteroid fluticasone.

The accelerated stability storage data to be presented allows for prediction of a target two year shelf-life at room temperature for this product. The SkyePharma team attending will consist of Dr. Geraldine Venthoye, leader of SkyePharma's Aerosol and Inhalation business unit, and Dr. Rudi Mueller-Walz, head of the Inhalation Excellence group at SkyePharma.

Dr. Carsten Niederlaender, Head of Technical Research, Development and Production at SkyePharma's European R&D unit in Muttenz, Switzerland, will deliver a lecture entitled Commercialisation of a New Asthma Inhaler: from concept to market introduction at the SMI conference Asthma Therapeutics, to be held in London on 29-30 April.

Michael Ashton, chief executive of SkyePharma, said: "We welcome these opportunities to demonstrate our growing presence in the important and fast-growing pulmonary delivery market. Foradil(R) Certihaler(R), which we co-developed with Novartis, has now received its first European approval and an "approvable" letter was issued by the US Food & Drug Administration in October last year. We have also recently signed a second agreement with Novartis to jointly develop a dry-powder inhaler version of QAB 149, Novartis' novel long-acting bronchodilator, and an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to license our formulation technologies for application to the delivery of respiratory drugs, either by breath-actuated dry powder inhaler or by metered-dose aerosol inhaler."

SkyePharma PLC develops pharmaceutical products benefiting from world-leading drug delivery technologies that provide easier-to-use and more effective drug formulations. There are now ten approved products incorporating SkyePharma's technologies in the areas of oral, injectable, inhaled and topical delivery, supported by advanced solubilisation capabilities. For more information, visit www.skyepharma.com.