Glaukos, Ripple Therapeutics enter licensing agreement

Ripple Therapeutics Corporation announced evaluation and licensing agreements with Glaukos Corporation. Ripple’s patented technology platform is based on a discovery that drugs can be chemically engineered into controlled release pharmaceuticals without the use of polymers or excipients. These proprietary prodrugs undergo surface erosion to give zero order release kinetics and are highly engineerable to tailor both drug dose and duration. The advantages of this technology include lower molecular weight and higher drug loading allowing for smaller implants and a lack of degradation products which provides both a clearer regulatory path as well as an improved safety profile. With an extended duration of therapeutic benefit, this technology will also reduce the treatment burden for patients. These agreements enable Glaukos to leverage Ripple’s proprietary technology platform to create sustained release implants of targeted APIs for both glaucoma and retinal diseases. If the program is successful, the evaluation agreement will automatically convert into a licensing agreement with future milestone payments and royalties.