Recipharm, the contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), has signed a licensing agreement with Altus Formulation Inc, a Canadian drug development company, to allow its customers to access new drug delivery technologies and products.

Under the terms of the agreement, Recipharm will co-develop new value added medicines for its customers utilising Altus’ patented INTELLITAB and FLEXITAB drug delivery technologies.

INTELLITAB is a novel misuse and abuse deterrent technology that mitigates the dangers of over-exposure to opioids that can occur due to inadvertent or deliberate tampering with immediate release or extended release narcotics. INTELLITAB tablets are hardened to resist cutting, crushing and chewing, common methods to accelerate drug release, and spontaneously form hard, stable gels in a range of solvents to deter injection. To date, the technology has been used for the development of both narcotic and stimulant products for sale in North America.

FLEXITAB is a commercially validated extended release technology enabling alcohol resistant tablets that maintain their performance after breaking to generate bio-equivalent lower strength tablets. As a result, FLEXITAB tablets may be broken with no risk of dose dumping or loss of controlled release, eliminating the need for multiple tablets for patients whose regime requires the ability to titrate to effect. The technology can be used to generate novel enhanced generic tablets and to increase the value of existing non-breakable extended release products.

”This collaboration is an exciting step for Recipharm, enabling us to bring innovative drug delivery technologies to our customers and ultimately develop novel, safer and cost effective new products. We look forward to working with Altus to increase the use of its technologies in Europe”, said Bernard Pluta, President Development Services at Recipharm.

”We are delighted to enter into this agreement and look forward to co-developing a range of patent protected, label differentiated new products with Recipharm and its customers”, added Damon Smith, CEO of Altus.