R&D Strategy
At Ferrer, we focus on identifying projects with differential value
To support Ferrer's purpose of using our business to fight for social justice, the R&D team aims to develop and deliver transformative therapeutic solutions for people living with severe and debilitating diseases.
Innovation is an inherent part of our pharmaceutical development, and we have always upheld our commitment in searching for and developing new treatment alternatives aimed at addressing unmet medical needs in order to improve the patients' quality of life and creating value for physicians, health systems and society at large.
We do this in two main areas:
Pulmonary vascular and interstitial lung diseases
Neurological disorders
We have brought together the talent, technical expertise, tools and scientific know-how to identify and deliver life changing therapies to patients with unmet needs. Our R&D focus is to bring innovative drug delivery approaches to enhance medicines to treat disease condition, progression and symptoms. We also utilize state of the art digital technology to develop products and services which, together with our drug therapies, offer new approaches for non-invasive therapeutic support for patients.
Our dynamic R&D strategy improves our understanding of the diseases which drives development of potential new therapies. Development is guided by patient journeys which reflect their daily life, enabling us to make smart, well-integrated choices for rapid adoption to new challenges and opportunities.
The patients and their needs are always at the forefront of our development strategy as we research, create, innovate, and develop therapeutic products. We work for patients to provide life-altering therapies-products that revolutionize the effectiveness of their medicine and improve the quality of their lives.
Pipeline
Our innovative approach has resulted in multiple product candidates under development that have the potential to improve the quality of life for patients. Our researchers continually evaluate opportunities to develop and deliver differential and meaningful solutions.
We are driven to create impactful new drug products for the chronic or acute treatment of debilitating symptoms and conditions. Several of our development programs utilize our own proprietary technology, Staccato® One Breath Technology™ – OBT™, that enables novel treatments for acute and intermittent conditions non-invasively.
Our current pipeline is patient-centric and spans across our therapeutic focus areas: pulmonary vascular and interstitial lung diseases and neurological disorders.
In addition, we are developing products that have the potential to respond to the unmet needs of patients with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) and diabetic retinopathy. Those programs are available for collaboration in some geographies.
| PROGRAMS | PRECLINICAL | PHASE I | PHASE II | PHASE III | REGISTRY | MARKET |
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| RARE NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS | ||||||
| FNP 223 - Progressive Supranuclear Palsy |
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| FNP 002* - Rapid Epileptic Seizure Termination |
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| FNP 010 - Staccato® Technology for Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome |
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| FNP 150 - Staccato® Technology for Parkinson's Disease |
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| PULMONARY VASCULAR & INTERSTITIAL LUNG DISEASES |
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| Tyvaso®**$ - Pulmonary Hypertension Interstitial Lung Disease |
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| Tyvaso®** - Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis |
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| Tyvaso®** - Progressive Pulmonary Fibrosis |
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| FNP 321# - Medical Device for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension |
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| FNP 221 - Medical Device for Pulmonary Hypertension Interstitial Lung Desease |
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Our technologies
Staccato® One Breath Technology™ – OBT™, was developed as the founding technology for Alexza Pharmaceuticals, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Ferrer. This unique technology is incorporated into a handheld inhaler designed to deliver a pure drug aerosol to the deep lung, providing rapid systemic delivery and therapeutic onset in a simple, non-invasive manner. This platform can be adopted to deliver many different compounds providing rapid IV like pharmacokinetic response in a simple, non-invasive way thereby enabling application of new and existing drugs to address unmet needs.
How the Staccato® system works
The Staccato system utilizes a rapid heating system capable of vaporizing unformulated pharmaceutical active ingredients, deposited in a thin layer on a stainless steel substrate in as little as 100 milliseconds. When the patient inhales through the Staccato system, drug is rapidly vaporized and then condenses to particles sized optimally for delivery to the deepest and most vascularized areas of the lung. This achieves rapid and complete absorption into the bloodstream.
The Staccato technology has been proven to be safe and effective as evidenced by approvals from the EMA, FDA, and numerous other regulatory agencies through Adasuve® (loxapine) inhalation powder. Adasuve is indicated for the acute treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder in adults. For full prescribing information, including boxed warning, visit adasuve.com or the EMA website.
Currently we are developing 2 products on this platform: FNP 150 (for treatment of ‘off’ episodes in patients with Parkinson’s Disease) and FNP 010 (acute treatment of cyclic vomiting episodes). Other Staccato based products are in development by our partners UCB and Lee Pharmaceuticals.
Other formulation capability
Our R&D scientists have expertise in a range of formulations, including extended release, oral dosage forms, oral suspensions, semi-solids and injectable depots (microparticles for prolonged release). Ferrer utilizes these diverse technologies to improve existing drugs, creating more effective and/or convenient therapies for patients in our therapeutic areas of focus.