Catalent Pharma Solutions of Somerset, N.J., and Bend Research of Bend, Ore., have entered into an agreement to provide integrated solutions for pharmaceutical companies seeking to develop and manufacture specialized multiparticulate oral controlled-release products.

The pair will provide an integrated approach to bring complex controlled-release products to market faster and more efficiently with optimal therapeutic and release profiles. The companies’ combined expertise in formulation development and Catalent's breadth of services in analytical/CMC, solid-state optimization, clinical and commercial supply will provide pharmaceutical companies with optimal dosage forms and a more efficient path to market. Catalent and Bend Research are developing joint operations and technology-transfer protocols to make the customer experience seamless and efficient while leveraging the strengths of both companies to develop better treatments for patients globally.

“Our integrated approach is geared toward complex, multiparticulate controlled-release products, which traditionally have presented a high scale-up risk when they are transferred to commercial manufacturing sites,” said Rod Ray, CEO of Bend Research. “This partnership with Catalent will provide an efficient pathway for these medicines from early development through commercialization. We believe that Catalent's breadth of services and demonstrated success in bringing controlled-release products to market, as well as supplying them globally, makes them an ideal complement to our development strengths.”

Ian Muir, president of Catalent’s modified release technologies business, added, “Catalent and Bend are aligning their scientific expertise and processes to ensure that developments are undertaken from day one based on quality by design principles. Bend’s added laboratory scale modeling expertise will enhance and increase the efficiencies that Catalent will provide to customers to bring difficult to formulate and manufacture controlled-release compounds to market faster, with optimal product profiles. This should enable optimal and seamless scale-up within Catalent’s controlled release network, and particularly at our Winchester, Ky., facility, which is widely regarded as the leading commercial facility for multiparticulate products.”