Vyteris to pursue joint developments in pain mangement

USA-based Vyteris, manufacturer of the first Food and Drug Administration-approved active patch transdermal drug-delivery system, announced an initiative to identify and target candidate drugs in the pain management field that could potentially be delivered using the firm's system.

"Our first successful FDA approval for our active patch transdermal system was for topical delivery of lidocaine, and we are now examining other drugs in pain management for use in our system as the next step in our market development," said Haro Hartounian, president of Vyteris. "We believe the unique properties of several pain medications make them excellent candidates for testing and use with our system. We have proven the concept of transdermal delivery of pain medication using our system - now we are looking to demonstrate that our system is versatile and can work with a variety of different drugs in the pain management area," he added.

Vyteris' Pain Management Initiative will examine several candidate drugs to improve their safety and efficacy profiles using its proprietary controlled drug-delivery technology and to potentially extend their patent protection. The initiative will include efforts to secure joint development agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers for in vitro and in vivo testing of pain medication compounds.