Swedish Biotech Update

Diabact AB, founded in 1995, is a privately owned Swedish company which develops, manufactures, documents and registers new drugs and dosage forms for improved drug treatment. The company is the unique creation of a group of physicians and pharmacists.

Diabact
Founded: 1995
Publicly listed: No
Number of employees: 10
Key business area(s): Pharmaceuticals
Telephone: +46 18 71 07 70
Website
Contact

Developing the
next generation of drugs

“Three of us originally started the company in 1995. We were seeking to develop a new dosage form of breath test for the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infections. One of us is a physician and the other two are pharmacists and together we developed an improved new breath test. This was our first success after which we went on to develop a new platform patents for new dosage forms says one of the founders and managing director Thomas Lundqvist.

Advancing pharmaceuticals
Basically, Diabact take pharmaceutical ideas in their infancy and advance them through their stages of development to an approved pharmaceutical product.
   “Our first product was an in vivo diagnostic test, but our focus today is regular pharmaceutical products. Our second product, a patented oral formulation for the treatment of acute pain, is undergoing clinical phase II trials. Products for rapid sleep induction and on demand treatment of oesophageal reflux disease will soon be entering clinical phase I trials”

Blend of skills
To achieve this goal the company has recruited essential competence within the areas of industrial pharmacy, basic pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, clinical trials, drug regulatory affairs and immaterial rights. This blend of skills and the small size of the company creates an optimum working atmosphere according to Lundqvist.
   “We have the advantage, as a small company, of working close together so that deadlines will be met in a cost-efficient manner. With these skills, we are confident that we can meet the demands of an increasingly competitive and demanding pharmaceutical environment.”
   Diabact is not a marketing organisation in its own right, and the company works by collaborating with strong and stable partners capable of marketing products internationally, through partnership or licence agreements.
The corner-stone of Diabact is its ability to patent or obtain access to patented innovations in the field of pharmaceutical formulation technology and drug delivery systems. By utilizing new drug delivery technologies, potential products are designed to improve and control the release, absorption and utilization of established and well-documented active drug compounds. The dosage forms can also be used for new chemical compounds. “We can do this because we have access to unique expertise both in the areas of pharmaceutics, medicine and immaterial rights,” explains Lundqvist.
   Diabact also has drug production facilities for development and manu-facture of solid oral dosage forms. In accordance with international guide-lines for good manufacturing practice and the company’s internal Quality Assurance Policy, it ensures that the manufacture and control of products meets the highest standard.
   Diabact is also experienced in the field of clinical pharmacology and clini-cal trials, enabling the company to design and perform a complete clinical programme, including documentation and performance in compliance with good clinical practice.
   Finally, Diabact’s other work includes several projects in different areas of the documentation programme necessary for the approval of new drugs. The company’s competence in the field of Regulatory Affairs includes know-how on registration and documentation requirements world-wide.
   “We will continue to be a drug delivery company and we will develop into a pharmaceutical company that launches a new product every 18 to 24 months. However, this obviously requires considerable investment and we will probably have to aim for stock market listing within a year or two to achieve this.”
“Sweden is a good place to be based for a pharmaceutical company focused on drug delivery. There are many highly experienced people working here. Uppsala, in particular, is a hotbed of pharmaceutical and biotechnology development at the moment. We are also close to the universities in Uppsala and Gothenburg.”
   Lundqvist concludes: “Our overall aim is to become an internationally well-established company in the development of new and innovative drug delivery systems. By creating the resources and environment necessary to stimulate the development of therapeutically important new drugs, we intend to attract scientists from front line research in the areas of industrial pharmacy, medicine and qualified staff capable of developing and documenting Diabacts future products.”

Everett Ellestad