The Russian pharmaceutical company NovaMedica and the Swiss biopharmaceutical company Ferring Pharmaceuticals have established a partnership to bring novel gastroenterological drug treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to Russia. The two companies announced the signing of an agreement for commercializing a product line of treatments for ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and bleeding from esophageal varicose.
According to the new agreement, NovaMedica will now hold the right to commercialize a series of innovative prescription drug products from Ferring’s portfolio in the Russian market. The Russian company will soon launch the product line in the country to treat these three diseases that comprise IBD, which are included in the group of inflammation disorders that mainly affect the colon and small intestine, but can also affect other regions such as the mouth, esophagus, stomach, rectum or anus.
“The agreement with Ferring opens up broad prospects for the development of products for the treatment of gastroenterological diseases, which are one of the most widely spread and significant medical problems in Russia,” stated the COO of NovaMedica, Fabrice Egros. “Through this collaboration, we will be able to offer Russian specialists and patients new solutions for treatment using effective medicines.”
Employees from NovaMedica’s marketing and sales departments, as well as the company’s medical advisors and representatives will be involved in the marketing process, and will help support the commercialization of the IBD treatments in Russia, as announced by both companies.
“We are glad to collaborate with NovaMedica and believe that this company is the right choice because of its long-term strategy targeted at bringing innovative gastroenterological products to Russian patients,” added the general manager of Ferring Russia, Kirill Litovchenko, about NovaMedica, a company created in 2012 that sources, registers and localizes the intellectual property rights of novel drug therapies and technologies in order to commercialize them to Russia.
Ferring is a research-focused company working worldwide to identify, develop and market novel therapeutic options in the fields of reproduction, obstetrics, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopedics. The company recently announced the European launch of cortiment MMX (budesonide) to address active mild and moderate ulcerative colitis, which is the first and only approved oral drug for the disease.
Ferring also recently presented data from its CONTRIBUTE trial, at the 10th Congress of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO). The study revealed that cortiment MMX 9 mg was significantly more effective when compared to placebo in inducing combined clinical and endoscopic remission in patients suffering from ulcerative colitis that continued to experience a flare up of the disease in spite of taking oral 5-ASA therapy.