Under the tongue rather than getting the needle

SHANGHAI & SAN DIEGO—Feb. 20 saw STA Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (WuXi STA)—a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec—and BioLingus, a Swiss biotech company, announce that they had formed an exclusive technology and marketing collaboration for sublingual delivery.

Under the terms of the collaboration, WuXi STA will have exclusive access to BioLingus technology for sublingual and buccal delivery in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) sector.

BioLingus has developed a novel platform to stabilize and deliver sublingually (orally under the tongue) drug targets—such as small molecules, peptides and proteins—that are currently administered to patients via injection. The collaboration will help further integrate the advantages of WuXi STA drug product services and expedite the development of BioLingus’ pipeline and usage of sublingual delivery technology.

In 2017, WuXi STA merged with WuXi AppTec’s Pharmaceutical Development Services unit, “realizing a seamless integration of the entire chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) supply chain,” the company says. It adds that over the past year, two new commercial drug product facilities—in Shanghai and the city of Wuxi near it—have come into operation, enabling WuXi STA to support solid-dosage drug development from preclinical to commercial, with several Phase 3 and commercial drug product projects underway. The newly introduced sublingual delivery technology will, the firm notes, “further deepen the scale of solid dosage drug capabilities in WuXi STA, providing customers with more flexible, diverse and advanced solutions.”

“We entered into this exclusive collaboration with WuXi STA for this technology in the CDMO sector for a number of reasons. Principally, WuXi STA is one of the world leaders in this field, with an integrated CMC platform from preclinical development to commercialization. Furthermore, this partnership will help us develop our own client base on a global scale faster and more broadly than we could do on our own.” said Yves Decadt, CEO of BioLingus.

Added Dr. Minzhang Chen, CEO of WuXi STA: “We are very pleased to partner with BioLingus and to offer their award-winning sublingual delivery technology to global new drug developers via WuXi STA’s integrated CMC platform. This collaboration will therefore offer more economical, convenient and effective delivery solutions for patients globally.”