Vectura, Unilever Ventures Ltd. drug delivery news

VEC spun out its PharmaKodex Ltd. subsidiary to repurpose existing drugs for new indications or to improve their route of administration. PharmaKodex (Chippenham, U.K.) has rights to oral and patchless transdermal delivery technologies from VEC and particle formulation/solubilization and encapsulation technologies from Unilever, plus a pipeline of seven prescription and six OTC products. The newco plans to develop its prescription pipeline to Phase II testing before seeking partners.

PharmaKodex is headed by Rod Richards as CEO and John Staniforth as CSO. Richards was previously CEO of Microscience Ltd., which was acquired by Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (Gaithersburg, Md.) last year. Staniforth was CSO of VEC. ...