Starpharma Holdings Limited recently announced the signing of a new agreement with Eli Lilly and Company  under which Starpharma’s dendrimer drug delivery technology will be applied to enhance compounds in Lilly’s human pharmaceutical portfolio. Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will fund a collaborative research and development program with the aim of creating improved drugs incorporating SPL’s proprietary delivery technology, to be commercialized by Lilly.

The current agreement relates to the delivery of certain human pharmaceuticals, and is separate and additional to the contract signed in May 2009 in which it was agreed that Starpharma and Elanco (Lilly’s animal health division) would work together to develop new animal health products with enhanced properties. The Elanco collaboration continues in its own right.

Starpharma Holdings Limited is a world leader in the development of dendrimer technology for pharmaceutical, life-science, and other applications. Products based on SPL’s dendrimer technology are already on the market in the form of diagnostic elements and laboratory reagents through licence arrangements with various partners. In the pharmaceutical field, Starpharma is developing VivaGel as a vaginal microbicide and condom coating and has specific programs in the areas of Drug Delivery and Drug Optimization technologies (using dendrimers to control where and when drugs go when introduced to the body) and Diagnostics. More broadly, the company is exploring dendrimer opportunities in materials science applications, including water remediation.