Celanese Corporation, a global specialty materials and chemical company, announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Population Council to supply its VitalDose Drug Delivery Platform for use in a new Multipurpose Prevention Technology (MPT) Intravaginal Ring (IVR). The IVR is being developed to provide both contraception and protection against HIV and is currently in a phase 1b clinical trial.

Long-acting continuous drug delivery dose forms, like IVRs, offer fewer barriers to reliable use than oral forms requiring daily doses. Providing benefits for patients, like enhanced convenience, can lead to better outcomes and is the driver for developing patient-centric dose forms. The VitalDose Drug Delivery Platform has been used in patient-centric dose forms in women’s health for over two decades, offering tunable and consistent elution for a variety of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) molecules.

“Our data indicate that women overwhelmingly prefer, and are more likely to use, a multipurpose prevention product that prevents pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection acquisition over a product that prevents only one of the two,” said Bríd Devlin, Chief Scientific Officer of Product Development at the Population Council. “This IVR would address the need for a contraceptive solution while also providing preventive therapy against HIV at a time when 63% of new HIV infections are contracted by women and girls.”

“There is an undeniable need for new patient-centric technologies that provide women with new healthcare options and address the overlapping global burdens of unintended pregnancy and HIV,” said Susan Rahe, Vice President of Pharmaceutical Solutions at Celanese. “Our team recognizes the benefits of a sustained release dose form to further the work of Population Council as they continue to develop global treatments to benefit the lives of patients.”

The VitalDose Drug Delivery Platform provides reliable, controlled-release performance for a wide range of molecule types and has a long history of use in approved parenteral drug products in the United States, Europe and many other geographies.