Chicago, March 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Xeris”), a specialty pharmaceutical company leveraging its novel technology platforms to develop and commercialize ready-to-use injectable and infusible drug formulations, announced today that it has entered into a Feasibility Evaluation Agreement with Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation (“AKP”). AKP is a research-based pharmaceutical company specializing in the therapeutic areas of pain management, musculoskeletal disorders, and critical care medicine. AKP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Asahi Kasei Corporation, which is a shareholder of Xeris.
The goal of the feasibility evaluation is to understand if a particular therapeutic from AKP’s product portfolio can be reformulated using Xeris’ XeriJect™ technology. In particular, AKP and Xeris’ objective is to understand if the formulation can be converted from one that today is intravenously administered to a ready-to-use, room-temperature stable formulation with significantly lower injection volume for subcutaneous injection.
“We look forward to the results of the feasibility study. If the XeriJect™ technology successfully reformulates our product as expected, it becomes more realistic to develop a new dosage form for a particular clinical use requiring low injection volume and immediate preparation which was impossible to realize with the current lyophilized form.” said Tomokazu Sugi, the Senior General Manager of Pharmaceuticals Research Center of AKP.
“A core part of our strategy is to apply our formulation technology platforms to proprietary drugs and biologics from other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a goal of developing ready-to-use, room-temperature stable versions of their products. Xeris is working with several companies to evaluate the formulation of those companies’ therapeutics with its XeriSol™ or XeriJect™ technologies. We are excited to collaborate with AKP to understand the feasibility of this novel formulation.” said Steve Prestrelski, Ph.D., MBA, the Chief Scientific Officer of Xeris.
