inVentiv Health, a life science knowledge and services company, and Aprecia Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company, have formed an exclusive sales and marketing alliance. This partnership will launch the Aprecia brand, as well as provide comprehensive commercialization of Aprecia's pioneering technology platform and initial pharmaceutical products.

Aprecia offers the proprietary ZipDose product platform using three-dimensional printing (3DP) technology to create fast-melt products. These products may change how patients experience taking their medicine by making drugs easier to administer and swallow. Aprecia has completed clinical work and expects to file its first NDA with the FDA in the second half of 2014.

inVentiv will partner with Aprecia as its exclusive provider of comprehensive commercialization services and will share in the success of the commercialization efforts. inVentiv will invest time and materials to launch Aprecia and to commercialize its products in exchange for a negotiated royalty from future sales.

"Getting medicine into the human body reliably and accurately is both a challenge and an enormous opportunity," said Don Wetherhold, CEO of Aprecia. "To realize the potential of our technology and move quickly into market, we sought a partner that could execute every phase and function in commercialization."