Developed by the UK-based Weston Medical, Intraject could open up new vistas for drug companies looking at mechanisms to extend product patent life or even generic manufacturers attempting product differentiation.

Exclusive marketing rights in the country for the technology has been granted to the Ahmedabad-based Indegene Lifesystems via Sosei of Japan. The Indian firm already has an agreement with Sosei to access state-of-the-art healthcare technologies for the domestic market.

Indegene director Rajesh Nair told The Financial Express that Intraject uses a compact energy source that propels a pre-measured quantity of medicine through the skin into the underlying tissue without the use of the needle. An estimated one million people, in the US alone, suffer injury or infection fromhypodermic needles.

"A precise dosage of medication is automatically injected through the skin within 50 milliseconds as compressed nitrogen expands to activate the system," added Indegene director Rohit Bhojaraj. The international target price per Intraject shot has been pegged at $1 to $1.5.

Besides, Nair said that drugs which propose to use Intraject are likely to hit the global market only by 2001, giving Indian companies access to cutting-edge technologies almost concurrently with their overseas competitors.

Weston Medical already has two global deals --one with Swiss multinational, Hoffmann-La Roche and the other with Pharmacia & Upjohn -- for delivery of two separate compounds currently under development via the Intraject.

The UK-based company's Intraject will be used for the delivery of Roche's compound, Pegasys (pegylated-40k interferon alfa-2a, recombinant), being developed as a once-weekly injectable treatment for chronic hepatitis C as well as select oncologic indications.

In the case ofPharmacia and Upjohn, Intraject will be used for the delivery of Fragmin, a low molecular weight heparin and a leading therapy in the prevention and the treatment of blood clots. At present, Fragmin is administered using the conventional syringe. The Intraject-Fragmin prefilled system is expected to hit the market by 2001.

Intraject is also proposed to be used in a host of clinical trials including migraine, thrombosis, anaemia, oncology, hepatitis and osteoporosis. At present, volumes up to one millilitre can be delivered using the Intraject, even as it is technically possible to increase this. Though the product has been developed primarily for intradermal and subcutaneous dosing, the UK-based company is also working towards developing intramuscular applications.