Singapore: Avantor Performance Materials has signed a collaboration agreement with Rubicon Research of Mumbai, aimed at combining the Indian company's proprietary product technology with Avantor's expertise in manufacturing and marketing to develop next-generation products for the functional excipient market.

The immediate goal of the partnership is to develop and market a novel gastro-retentive excipient that can enable the delivery of molecules having a window of absorption. Introduction of this novel excipient will enable the industry to develop more options in a niche segment where the benefit of targeted delivery will result in significant therapeutic advantage.

"We are delighted to be working with an exceptional partner like Rubicon in this development effort," said Mr Paul Smaltz, executive vice president of pharmaceuticals, the Americas, Avantor. "The combination of Rubicon's groundbreaking technology and our strong position in the global marketplace for functional excipients will result in outstanding products to help our pharmaceutical customers in their pursuit of patient dosage compliance, and safety."

The agreement calls for the companies to collaborate on key elements of the process of bringing new products to the pharmaceutical excipient market, including optimized commercial manufacturing and production, full regulatory registrations and approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration to move toward full commercialization and potential licensing of the excipient materials.

The two companies said they would work to launch initial products resulting from the partnership in 2013."The Rubicon team is excited to work with Avantor in introducing this novel polymeric material as a functional excipient," said Rubicon Research CEO, Mrs Pratibha Pilgaonkar. "This material will provide solutions to the global pharmaceutical industry for molecules with challenging therapeutic requirements, either from the pipelines of innovator companies or for life cycle management opportunities for already marketed products."

Mr Smaltz noted that the agreement is an example of Avantor's commitment to seek innovative approaches to opportunities in the pharmaceutical area. "As we continue to be a trusted supplier of chemical compounds and materials, we're also looking at similar arrangements to expand on our portfolio of drug delivery products and services, with the aim of providing even more value to our pharmaceutical customers in the future."