As patents expire and pipelines dwindle, the pharmaceutical industry has looked at where the future medical needs are, and has identified ophthalmology as a market that’s both growing and lucrative. We’ve already covered the big mergers, acquisitions and partnerships announced this year in the September issue (top.txp.to/0113/203) but another two have recently been announced.
InnoCore Pharmaceuticals has revealed that it has signed an exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Allergan. The companies are currently working together on utilizing Innocore’s long-acting drug delivery platforms for the delivery of Allergan’s ophthalmic drugs. Smarter drug delivery mechanisms have already given a new lease of life to older drugs, particularly corticosteroids, as demonstrated with Alimera’s Iluvien and Allergan’s own Ozurdex. The overlap between ophthalmology – principally cataract and refractive surgery – and aesthetic procedures has been becoming greater, and some of the technologies that underlie them are similar. This might explain why the Frankfurt-based Merz Pharma Group, a pharmaceutical company with no prior presence in ophthalmology (but that does market a dermal filler product), has announced their acquisition of Anteis SA, a Swiss biotechnology company that has wide portfolio of injectable, transformable biopolymers for use primarily in surgical ophthalmic and aesthetic procedures.
