Yamanouchi Shaklee Pharma Licenses OCAS Drug Delivery Technology from Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
OCAS is an innovative oral controlled-release system, allowing continual drug release and absorption up to 24 hours throughout the digestive tract, including the colon, an area where drug release is difficult to achieve.
OCAS is based on a novel hydrophilic gel-forming system, which enables the gradual release of drug at a therapeutically effective rate as the tablet system travels throughout the digestive tract. OCAS prolongs the absorption period of the drug at predictable and reproducible kinetics.
The programmable release of drug in the OCAS system allows a once-daily dose and ensures steady action by minimizing the effects of intersubject differences and food consumption on drug absorption. Moreover, an OCAS dosage form permits oral administration of a variety of drugs including small molecules and peptides with different physicochemical properties. For drug candidates with a high propensity for enzymatic degradation and low intestinal permeability, colon site-specific delivery of OCAS is a possibility.
As with its drug delivery license agreement for the Wowtab quick-dissolving tablet technology, YSP has been granted an exclusive license under the OCAS patent, know-how and trademark. This license grants rights to develop, manufacture, use and sell, including sublicensing, OCAS products in North America initially, with the potential, as with Wowtab, to expand it on a case-by-case basis.
"We look forward to creating breakthroughs in drug delivery with OCAS and building on our initial success with Wowtab," said Dan Green, Vice President of Business Development. "As with Wowtab, the OCAS technology shows a broad application potential and excellent compatibility with conventional pharmaceutical manufacturing and packaging systems."
Yamanouchi Shaklee Pharma, located in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, California, is a division of San Francisco-based Shaklee Corporation. Shaklee became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in 1989. With operations worldwide, Yamanouchi ranks third in sales in the Japanese pharmaceutical market.