pSivida announces new agreements with pharmaceutical firms for its ophthalmology technology

By Ted A. Knutson

Washington, Jan. 4 - pSivida Ltd. said Wednesday its wholly owned subsidiary pSivida Inc. (formerly Control Delivery Systems, Inc.) has recently entered into a number of new evaluation agreements with various companies including large global pharmaceutical companies, to evaluate pSivida's proprietary platform technology for their developmental compounds.

The companies were not named and neither were the dollar values.

The parent company said terms of the new evaluation agreements vary but are typically 12 months in duration with the costs being borne by the counterparty. With these new agreements, pSivida Ltd. now has evaluation agreements with three of the five largest pharmaceutical companies.

"We believe these new evaluation agreements come at a time when the ophthalmology market is growing strongly and are a reflection of growing interest in pSivida's technologies," said Gavin Rezos, MD and chief executive officer of pSivida Ltd., in a news release. "We expect to enter into further agreements for pSivida's drug delivery products in 2006."

pSivida noted Control Delivery Systems in collaboration with Alimera Sciences began a phase 3 clinical trial in October to study diabetic macular edema patients treated using its Medidur platform technology to deliver fluocinolone acetonide.

Diabetic macular edema is the leading cause of vision loss for Americans under the age of 65 with about 500,000 treatable cases in the United States alone. Medidur for diabetic macular edema is an injectable, non-erodible intravitreal device that is administered in an office procedure as opposed to a surgical procedure. This implant is designed to release a constant amount of drug to the back of the eye for between 18 months and three years.

pSivida is a biotechnology company based in Perth, Australia, that develops a modified form of silicon known as BioSilicon for use in or on humans and animals.

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