Meditech signs collaboration agreement with US firm Hyalose

Cancer therapy developer Meditech (ASX:MTR) has signed a research and development collaboration agreement with Hyalose, a privately-owned US biotech company.

Under the agreement, Meditech and Hyalose will evaluate hyaluronic acid (HA) molecules of different sizes for their ability to act as targeting agents for novel drug delivery systems. The HA molecules are produced using unique recombinant technology developed by Dr Paul DeAngelis and Dr Paul Weigel, both from the University of Oklahoma, which was licensed to Hyalose for commercialisation.

"We are delighted to be working with two of the world experts in HA research as part of this collaboration", said Meditech's research director, Assoc Prof Tracey Brown. "We believe that linking HA to drug molecules may confer unique targeting and formulation properties to those drugs and the Hyalose technology provides a means of producing defined HA molecules to help test this hypothesis."

Meditech CEO Dr Ian Nisbet said he believed the new agreement could lead to new IP for both Meditech and Hyalose.

"We plan to explore the size of fragments, what amounts and what happens to HA and that may lead to more IP", he said.

"We hope to increase the biological understanding of how HA binds and create quality data and materials into patients to take products forward. The collaboration with Hyalose is further evidence of Meditech's commitment to explore the next generation of HA-based products and complements our existing collaboration with the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University."