Mr. Kaplan: I think fundamentally there are a couple of things to mention. A number of companies have really executed from the point of view of getting new partnerships and signing new partners up to use their technology to address the drug delivery issues they are running up against with their internal products. I think there were a number of high profile deals in combination with the fundamental belief that drug delivery is thought of as slightly lower risk from the point of view that companies initially use the drug delivery technology to address proven drugs that are already on the market and improve them, whether it's with respect to the therapeutic profile, efficacy, side effects or even just convenience. In fact, in some cases just improving convenience or patient compliance can lead to improved efficacy and/or side effect profiles. In addition, a number of drugs are coming off patent and big pharma companies are scrambling to extend the life cycle of these drugs. Big pharma companies are also very hungry for new products and pipelines. Drug delivery is going to, I think, continue to be a very interesting area for development.
TWST: The technologies that have been licensed or partnered here, are
they older ones or are there some new approaches?
Mr. Kaplan: They're mostly new approaches that have been in development
for a number of years. There are a number of drug delivery approaches
that have really matured over the last three to five years, and over the
last 18-24 months have really started to take hold. Some of the
technologies that are being accessed by partners range from technologies
such as liposomal technologies, which have been around for a while, to
some polymer technologies and emulsion technologies, which are really
newer in development and I think are at the stage where their maturity
level has started to prove itself.
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