Closely held Ripple Therapeutics has announced that, earlier this year, it entered into an evaluation program and licensing option agreement with an affiliate of Bausch + Lomb (NYSE/TSX: BLCO).
Under the terms of the agreement, Bausch + Lomb will fund the early-stage feasibility and preclinical evaluation of the target molecule and will have the option to license any formulations being evaluated under the program for additional financial consideration including milestones and royalties.
In a statement, Tom Reeves, president and CEO of Ripple, commented, “We’re pleased to partner with Bausch + Lomb and look forward to working with them to develop sustained release implants that will benefit patients with extended duration and improved safety. This is our third strategic collaboration transaction in the last 12 months, which we believe is a testament to the power of the Ripple technology platform and the breadth of its application.”
Mayssa Attar, PhD, SVP Pharmaceutical and Consumer R&D Head of Bauch + Lomb, remarked, “We’ve known the team at Ripple for a number of years and have always been impressed with their technology platform. We are pleased to be working with them on this innovative approach to sustained drug delivery which has the potential to improve upon the current standard of care for ophthalmic diseases.”
Ripple’s patented technology platform is based on a discovery that drugs can be chemically engineered into controlled release pharmaceuticals without the use of polymers. These proprietary prodrugs undergo surface erosion to give zero order release kinetics and are highly engineerable to tailor both drug dose and duration. Because there are no polymers, once the drug is gone, the implant is gone with no pro-inflammatory degradation products.
