Pantec Biosolutions: Intraepidermal delivery offers alternative to painful injections
Coming soon to dermatology clinics is a novel device for microporating the skin that holds tremendous promise for drug development teams struggling with the challenge of controlled delivery of a candidate compound.
On the heels of BioPharm America™ in Boston, Pantec Biosolutions will launch its P.L.E.A.S.E.® (Precise Laser Epidermal System) Professional platform, a bench top station designed for the delivery of therapeutic proteins and small organics by dermatologists.
The launch is the company’s leading edge of a three-phase strategy for introducing the proprietary P.L.E.A.S.E.® device for medical applications.
In the second phase, Pantec will unveil its flagship program for fertility-assisted treatment, which combines a follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) patch with intraepidermal microporation using the laser.
Christof Boehler, CEO Pantec Biosolutions
In the future, and a focus of meetings at BioPharm America for Pantec’s CEO, Christof Boehler, there is the potential for intraepidermal delivery in immunology and vaccine applications.
“The launch of the P.L.E.A.S.E.® Professional is a device-driven sale that we hope will start a revenue stream as well as providing us with feedback from key opinion leaders, published papers and a scientific foundation to direct where dermatologists are interested in applying the platform,” he explained in an interview with partneringNEWS™.
“With our second P.L.E.A.S.E.® product, we intend to replace injection-based medications in order to stimulate follicle growth with patches,” he said.
“It is a gorgeous platform that is second to none,” said Boehler, “as it is a handheld ablative laser than can be used at home without medical supervision.”
The current needle stick method for FSH “is a long, tedious, lengthy procedure for a woman, sometimes requiring up to a hundred injections,” he said.
“We have shown follicle growth via the patch, we achieved at least one pregnancy out of the procedure and we are preparing a further clinical trial,” said Boehler.
The active ingredient for FSH is now moving to the generic market with as many as five companies creating a recombinant version.
“Even as we speak, the patch developed by Pantec Biosolutions can be licensed,” Boehler said, “either by a new entrant to this broad market, or as a lifecycle extension product for established market leaders. For patients who want to avoid injections, we offer a patented alternative delivery route, which makes it interesting for licensing,” he said.
Moving upstream with the P.L.E.A.S.E.® platform, Boehler said he is interested in using the company’s expertise in microporation of the skin to solve delivery challenges in drug development.
He said the company has projects in progress with partners in immunology and vaccines that are generating data on the device performance.
“We have experience based on 30 drug candidates in preclinical studies,” he said. “We know what happens with the molecules, understand their permeation properties across the skin and their effects on the cellular level.”
The interest in intraepidermal application of antibodies and immunology drugs is to avoid side effects or adverse reactions, and to potentially decrease the drug load with a more efficient delivery.
“This is our vision and this is why we are absolutely interested in meeting upstream development teams at BioPharm America,” said Boehler.
“P.L.E.A.S.E.® offers a novel method to avoid injections by bringing large molecular weight drugs through the skin with precision delivery and dose control without pain,” he said.
“We are seeking companies with projects that have a difficult route of administration, for example, painful injections into lesions. That would be a perfect fit for us, as we now have the ability to get the drug into the lesion painlessly and precisely,” he said.
“We are also interested in speaking to companies with large molecular weight drugs that have not yet gone too far in considering the delivery method. I would like to be on their radar,” he said.
“A good example would be therapeutic vaccines, which are typically an injection-based therapy of peptide proteins. This would be of interest for us with the platform,” Boehler said.
Based on a successful launch of the P.L.E.A.S.E.® Professional, Boehler said he expects to begin generating revenue for Pantec before the end of 2011, reaching profitability by 2014.
“We are building a self-sustaining, independent company, not one that is praying for a takeover,” he said. “We have protected assets in our pocket and we are not under pressure to license them out at an early stage.”
Nonetheless, he said that if a strategic partner interested in helping to commercialize the P.L.E.A.S.E.® line and the patches steps forward, he is open to discussing a deal structure.
“For Pantec, the only thing that counts is a focus on the licensing area. A large pharma partner may be good, but not if there is a loss of focus on the area that is important for us,” he said.
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