NexACT technology improves oral delivery of five small molecule drugs

Apricus Biosciences, Inc., ("Apricus Bio") (Nasdaq: APRI) today announced data from animal studies showing that the NexACT^® technology significantly improved the oral delivery of five small molecule drugs tested, with the best improvements up to 20-fold, in terms of improvement in absorption. A total of 10 small molecule therapeutic drugs with known low solubility and/or permeability, according to the Biopharmaceuticals ("BCS") Classification System, were selected for these studies, and represented the following classes: anti-inflammatory drugs, diuretics, anti-hypertensives, antibiotics, anti-psychotics, anti-Parkinson agents and proton pump inhibitors.

The BCS, developed by Professor Gordon L. Amidon from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan, separates drugs into four quadrants depending on their solubility and permeability. Class 1 drugs are high solubility and high permeability, Class 2 low solubility and high permeability, Class 3 high solubility and low permeability, and Class 4 low solubility and low permeability. In the Apricus Bio studies, the compounds that showed the most improvement when formulated with the NEXACT technology were in Classes 2 and 4, where solubility is a determining factor.

Commenting on today's news, Dr. Bassam Damaj, President and Chief Executive Officer of Apricus Bio, stated, "Drugs are classified according to their solubility and permeability. This early data shows that the inclusion of NexACT can significantly improve the oral delivery of some small molecules by positively affecting their solubility, which affects absorption. Over time, this could open up exciting new partnership opportunities, especially for promising drug candidates that did not reach, or successfully pass through clinical development, because of poor solubility. Our goal is to make a major breakthrough in the utilization of NexACT to improve and/or enable the delivery of difficult-to-absorb compounds."