By putting that drug, Sumatriptan, into our device, Intraject, you are getting the benefits of increased efficacy and you are also ensuring that Glaxo differentiates against its competitors. At the end of a drug product s lifecycle the pharmaceutical companies also want to be able to extend the life of a patent of one of their drugs. If a drug is coming off patent, they can effectively extend the life of it by using a new drug delivery mechanism, which is itself patented. That is what they are doing with our product. Finally, the drug company wants to increase compliance and therefore, sales.
More compliance means more use of drugs, and means bigger profits for the pharmaceutical company.
The market size is substantial. There are lots of drugs that have to be injected, and some of them have a very high value, so we classify the market in many billions of dollars. The market for one drug that might be a possibility is erythropoietin, for instance. Furthermore, there are many new proteins, peptides and monoclonal antibodies coming onto the market that are currently going through Phase I, II and III trials that can only be injected. Now, that is of clear importance for us.