STA Pharmaceutical Co. (WuXi STA), a subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, and BioLingus have formed an exclusive technology and marketing collaboration for sublingual delivery.

Under the terms of the collaboration, WuXi STA will have exclusive access to BioLingus technology for sublingual and buccal delivery in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) sector. BioLingus has developed a novel platform – with patents secured in major countries around the world – to stabilize and deliver sublingually (orally under the tongue) drug targets including small molecules, peptides and proteins, that are currently administered to patients via injection.

The collaboration will help further integrate the advantages of WuXi STA drug product services and expedite the development of BioLingus’ pipeline and usage of sublingual delivery technology. 

In 2017, WuXi STA merged with WuXi AppTec’s Pharmaceutical Development Services unit, realizing a seamless integration of the entire chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) supply chain. Over the past year, two new commercial drug product facilities – in Shanghai and Wuxi city, Jiangsu province – have come into operation, enabling WuXi STA to support solid dosage drug development from preclinical to commercial, with several phase III and commercial drug product projects underway. The newly introduced sublingual delivery technology will further deepen the scale of solid dosage drug capabilities in WuXi STA, providing customers with more flexible, diverse and advanced solutions.

“We entered into this exclusive collaboration with WuXi STA for this technology in the CDMO sector for a number of reasons. Principally, WuXi STA is one of the world leaders in this field, with an integrated CMC platform from pre-clinical development  to commercialization.  Furthermore, this partnership will help us develop our own client base on a global scale faster and more broadly than we could do on our own.” said Yves Decadt, chief executive officer of BioLingus.

Dr. Minzhang Chen, chief executive officer of WuXi STA, said, “We are very pleased to partner with BioLingus and to offer their award-winning sublingual delivery technology to global new drug developers via WuXi STA’s integrated CMC platform. This collaboration will therefore offer more economical, convenient and effective delivery solutions for patients globally.”