Bio-Images expands in US and Japan

A Glasgow-based company at the forefront of innovation in gamma scintigraphic imaging for early phase clinical trials has secured numerous blue chip customers in Europe, Japan and the US.

Bio-Images has forged strategic partnerships with Pharmaceutics International in Baltimore, Maryland and Sansei Oka in Japan. The company has bought breakthrough technology imaGIT, which is licensed from Casper Associates.

Employing Bio-Images' non-invasive gamma scintigraphic imaging techniques, imaGIT is tracked through the digestive tract following oral administration and on arrival at the desired target site, release of the contained drug is triggered by an external radio signal. Blood sampling following drug release at distant sites in the intestine allows assessment of bioavailability, the results of which assist pharmaceutical companies rationalise their formulation development strategies.

Bio-Images has launched the imaGIT capsule to accelerate the drug development process. Detailed knowledge of the boundaries and limitations of drug absorption through the gastro-intestinal tract is crucial for effective formulation development, and this can be successfully achieved with imaGIT.

These three developments will not only develop the top line revenues and profitability of the company but also build upon the science credentials of a truly knowledge-based company servicing the needs and requirements of the demanding pharmaceutical industry.

These partnerships and technology breakthroughs will allow Bio-Images to supply customers with the range of its services.

imaGIT capsule technology is an ingestible, radio-controlled capsule used to evaluate regional drug absorption in humans. It has been developed by Casper Associates in the USA.

Company chairman professor Howard Stevens, said: "These strategic developments represent an outstanding opportunity for Bio-Images to develop its international business and also to expand the scope of the services offered to our customers. The partnership with Pharmaceutics International represents a significant expansion to our US customer base and that with Sansei Oka increases our commercial activities in the important Japanese market place. Through these partnerships we are now able to offer USA and Japanese clients access to our full range of clinical gamma scintigraphic services to assist and accelerate their formulation development programmes The licensing of the imaGIT capsule represents a further expansion of our capabilities in the important area of site-specific drug absorption."