UK coatings firm to add dissolving strip technology
coating tablets and capsules, is making an acquisition in the US
that gives it access to dissolving 'in the mouth' films for retail
consumer products, such as vitamin strips.
The company announced this week its intention to buy the edible film business of Florida-based Aquafilm for $11 million (€8.9m). The company, founded in 2000, has a film production facility with US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certification to produce soluble films for use in nutritional and food products.
The facility could also be quickly upgraded to full pharmaceutical production standard (cGMP), said BioProgress, which will be investing up to $3 million during 2004 to bring the plant up to pharmaceutical standard and refurbish the offices and packing facilities.
Aquafilm has been an active player in the growing market for fast dissolving 'in the mouth' films for retail consumer products. The technology is already used in breath freshening product introductions from Warner Lambert and Wrigley's in the USA and Europe, and Boots in the UK.
But Aquafilm has also developed dissolve 'in the mouth' vitamin strips, according to BioProgress and products based on the technology are already reaching the market. A Spiderman brand of vitamin strips is due to roll out in the US and UK to coincide with the launch of the second Spiderman film in May.
BioProgress meanwhile recently filed patents on a technology to allow a more effective delivery of active ingredients into oral dissolving films and believes this Wafertab technology will combine well with Aquafilm's product offering.
Aquafilm is forecasting revenues of around $50 million in the period 2004 -2006 from 'in the mouth' dissolving consumer products supplied to a number of companies.
BioProgress is also constructing a facility for first phase film production in Europe at a site in Cambridgeshire, and said this investment would continue "as our customers expect the security of two site supply."
To finance the acquisition of Aquafilm's assets and provide additional cash for capital investments, BioProgress has raised £10.5 million via a placing with institutional and other investors.
It has also signed a new agreement with an unnamed US company, for its Tabwrap technology, used for products in the over-the-counter (OTC) and dietary supplement markets. The technology will initially be applied to a limited number of products which could be on sale before the end of 2005, according to BioProgress.
