Reformulation required for Phosphagenics pain patch

It’s been a less-than-ideal week for drug delivery company Phosphagenics (ASX:POH), which will soon be reformulating its TPM/Oxymorphone patch and beginning the search for a new chairman.

Chairman and non-executive director Lawrence Gozlan stepped down from the board on Tuesday to focus on his other business interests and commitments. The role of interim chairman will be taken by Peter Lankau, who was appointed to the board by Gozlan about a month ago.

Then on Thursday, the company revealed it had completed a review of its TPM/Oxymorphone patch development program using specialist external consultants. The review looked into three critical path non-clinical studies which assessed the “development and commercial readiness” of the patches made during the recently completed technical transfer process.

The review concluded that additional specialised formulation work will need to be completed before the patch can be progressed further in the clinic. Phosphagenics will engage an external group with expertise in patch development for the reformulation, which is expected to delay the lodgement of an IND and phase 2 trial planned for the USA by more than 12 months.

Phosphagenics (ASX:POH) shares were trading 21.43% lower at $0.022 as of around 1.30 pm on Thursday.