Critical Pharma links with academia on osteoporosis nasal spray

Critical Pharmaceuticals, an emerging UK biotechnology company, and The University of Nottingham, UK, have announced a £545,000 ($858,375) collaboration to develop a nano-enabled intranasal formulation of teriparatide for the treatment of osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, the USA and Japan with more than 180,000 patients suffer fragility fractures in the UK alone each year, at a cost of around £2 billion to the National Health Service, the company notes.

Teriparatide, the active ingredient of US drug major Eli Lilly’s (NYSE: LLY) osteoporosis drug Forteo which last year generated sales of nearly $1 billion, is a recent addition to the range of drugs used for the treatment of osteoporosis, but it currently needs to be injected every day. The UK consortium will exploit a recent discovery in nanotechnology to develop a nasal spray formulation of teriparatide that is easy to administer by patients and provides optimal drug plasma levels to enhance efficacy.