Together, the 24 member companies of the Medicon Valley Inhalation Consortium (MVIC) constitute one of the world’s greatest concentrations of expertise and advanced equipment for developing inhalation applications.
The Medicon Valley Inhalation Consortium AB (MVIC) started as a consortium of inhalation experts that had worked at AstraZeneca in Lund until 2012, when the company moved out from its premises.
”Many of us have more than 30 years of experience within inhalation R&D. And since we’ve worked together we know each other quite well and have the same way of thinking and working, which is a great advantage in a collaborative environment like ours,” says Ola Nerbrink, CEO and co-founder of MVIC AB, a CRO specialising in inhalation and respiratory applications, both as compounds and medical devices.
The companies of MVIC span a wide range of expertise and contract services.
”We can take a project from early development up to phase II. We can also assist with optimisation in the discovery phase. We have both the expertise and the equipment necessary to perform the actual tests, validation and documentation including phase I clinical studies,” Ola Nerbrink comments.
”No other CRO in the world is as comprehensive in terms of knowledge and infrastructure in the field of inhalation products, I should say. It’s shown by our many customers from abroad, not least from Asia and by the fact that the Medicon Valley Inhalation Symposium, which we arrange in Lund in October every year since 2012, is Europe’s third largest inhalation symposium,” he adds.
Increased Demand for Developing Generic Products
With many patents about to expire, there’s an increased demand for generic inhalation products, where companies want to copy existing products.
”We’re for instance working with tech transfer in this field for a couple of big companies now. Then there are a number smaller companies that want to develop new concepts as well.”
Apart from being the CEO of MVIC, Ola Nerbrink also runs his own company, Respiron Consulting, that specialises in the development of inhaled products from pre-clinical to CMC, offering services within device and device/formulation interaction, product/patient interaction, system characterisation, inhalation toxicology system optimisation and evaluation, as well as documentation.
”I deliver services for both liquid- and powder-based inhalation products. I, for instance, offer investigations of particle size distribution through laser diffraction and spray pattern/plume geometry,” he concludes.
