NexMed, Inc., a specialty CRO and a developer of products based on the NexACT technology, recently announced that preclinical results from its research and development group at Bio-Quant successfully demonstrated the ability of the NexACT technology to deliver an oral formulation of Taxol (paclitaxel) and to enhance the drug's bioavailability by approximately ten-fold through this oral administration. Taxol, a first line chemotherapy drug used to treat breast, lung, and ovarian cancers, is currently administered through an intravenous infusion that can take up to 24 hours to complete.

“The results from these proof-of-concept studies are exciting and support our belief that NexACT can be successfully used to enhance oral bioavailability of a broad range of drugs, which could include our proprietary drug candidates, generic drugs, and proprietary drugs owned by others who are developing second-generation formulations to provide extended patent protection with increased convenience and bioavailability,” said Dr. Bassam Damaj, NexMed's Chief Executive Officer. “Our ability to leverage our proprietary NexACT technology in this way is expected to provide exciting new development opportunities and will no longer restrict us to the topical delivery of dermal drugs. Additional studies are ongoing to extend the validation of the technology into other classes of oral drugs."

NexMed, due to its recent acquisition of Bio-Quant, is the largest specialty CRO based in San Diego, CA, and is one of the industry's most experienced CROs for in vitro and in vivo pharmacology services and research models. NexMed has a proprietary product pipeline based on its NexACT drug delivery technology, including a late-stage terbinafine treatment for onychomycosis, a late-stage alprostadil treatment for erectile dysfunction, a Phase II alprostadil treatment for female sexual arousal disorder, and an early stage treatment for psoriasis.