EPO Grants Hovione New Inhaler Patent
Hovione recently announced the European Patent Office has granted a patent for Hovione’s XCaps, a dry powder inhaler (DPI). XCaps addresses a pulmonary inhalation market need for a very inexpensive device, which combines high efficiency in powder dispersion with ease of use. Lung fractions in excess of 70% have been achieved, from a device that only requires two steps to inhalation and only has two components plus a dust cover. This makes XCaps highly suited for inhalation applications in which minimal training of patients is desirable and has the versatility to treat almost all pulmonary diseases, including asthma, COPD, as well as infection, which typically require very large-dose delivery.
XCaps follows on the heels of another successful Hovione DPI, TwinCaps, which was developed specifically for an influenza application and is licensed to Daiichi Sankyo and Biota for this application.
Hovione is offering XCaps as a part of its inhalation device portfolio, allowing its integration with a drug product development program, allowing business partners to take their candidate drugs from the API stage all the way to the unit dose, with a single partner.
“We give our customers an edge in speed of development because we are perhaps the only independent company developing DPIs with expertise in every aspect of the inhaled drug development process,” said Peter Villax, Vice-President and Co-inventor of the device. “Granting of the European Patent on the XCaps inhaler, within 30 months after initial filing, underpins Hovione’s capabilities in innovation and intellectual property management, to successfully design, develop, and deliver innovative products, namely, a quality inhalation device, addressing a market need.”
“The XCaps addresses a gap for a simple, easy-to-use, cost-effective, multiple-use, capsule-based inhalation device. This allows our business partners to take advantage of additional patent protection for their inhalation drug product and effective drug product life cycle management,” added Gonçalo Andrade, Business Development Manager.
Hovione is currently executing inhaled drug development projects for multiple pharmaceutical companies, involving API process development, particle engineering, formulation, and clinical supplies, and is looking for partners willing to incorporate the XCaps into their inhalation drug development.
Hovione is a global company with over 50 years’ experience in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient and Drug Product Intermediate development and compliant manufacture. With four FDA-inspected sites in the US, China, Ireland, and Portugal, the company focuses on the most demanding customers in the most regulated markets. For more information about XCaps, visit www.hovione.com/inhale.
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