Hydro Med Sciences Expands Development Pipeline With a Potentially Revolutionary Long-Duration Biodegradable Drug Delivery Technology.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

CRANBURY, N.J.--(BW HealthWire)--June 10, 2002

Hydro Med Sciences (HMS), a specialty pharmaceutical company, announced an agreement with the acclaimed Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR). The agreement provides HMS with the option to acquire worldwide rights to the development and commercialization of a polymer system representing a potential breakthrough in biodegradable depot and implant drug-delivery therapy.

David Tierney, M.D., Hydro Med's President and CEO, said "This is an exciting addition to our development pipeline, because the ASCR biodegradable polymer matrix holds the promise of delivering a controlled steady-state of therapeutic for an extended time period of perhaps six-months or more. This would significantly reduce the risks of overdosing when applied to psychotropic, pain management, and other chronic therapies."

"However, the main value of this technology is its capability to deliver a wide range of therapeutic peptides and proteins in a well-controlled fashion," said Dr. Tierney. "The release kinetics from this system will be predetermined by combination of a diffusion mechanism with hydrolytic and enzymatic degradation. The rate of diffusion and biodegradation will be custom-tailored for each active compound."

In comparison, existing biodegradable delivery systems are limited in their utility, because they are typically characterized by an initial burst or overdosing of medication with an ensuing and comparatively rapid decline in blood levels of the therapeutic.

As part of today's announced agreement, ASCR, which is renowned for its basic and applied biopolymer research, will complete certain pre-clinical studies for HMS.

HMS noted that the new pipeline program strongly complements its innovative Hydron(TM) Implant technology, a highly compact and nondegradable implant now in Phase III trials for the 12-month administration of small, but potent amounts of the Histrelin LHRH agonist for treating prostate cancer. The U.S market for LHRH treatments of prostate cancer is estimated at over $1 billion, but is dominated by 4-month and shorter duration depot injections and implants.

"The potential of the Histrelin implant can significantly fuel our nearer term growth prospects while we pursue product development opportunities for our new biodegradable drug-delivery platform and explore other, near and long-term strategic initiatives in specialty pharmaceuticals," said Dr. Tierney.

Hydro Med Sciences is committed to extending the possibilities of pharmaceutical healthcare. The Company focuses on developing, acquiring and commercializing specialty pharmaceuticals and, through internal R&D and strategic partnerships, is advancing the state-of-art of drug delivery. Additional information is available on the Internet at: http://www.hydromed.com/