Oval Medical Technologies Ltd (‘Oval’) today announced that they have signed another deal following an initial feasibility study with a global pharmaceutical company, to a value in excess of one million pounds.

The feasibility study, which primarily focused on the pharmaceutical drug’s stability in Oval’s standard primary drug container, started in March 2012 and completed successfully in March 2013. The extension to the project, which will affirm the manufacturing process and assess device designs with potential users, was started in June 2013 and will complete in March 2014. It is envisaged that clinical studies will commence in 2014.

“The successful completion of the initial feasibility study and this extension, is further evidence of the increasing momentum that Oval’s novel technology is gaining with pharmaceutical companies,” said Barbara Lead, CEO of Oval. “Our primary drug container enables us to design devices which can be used to deliver a wider range of drug formulations in addition to offering greater patient benefits.”

News follows the recent announcement of the availability of Oval’s functional injection moulded autoinjector prototypes, which feature automatic skin sensor activation, automatic needle insertion, automatic liquid delivery, visual end-of-delivery indication, and automatic ‘passive’ needle safety cover deployment. The fully functional prototypes demonstrate the superior user and technical performance that can be achieved using Oval’s technologies.

The versatility of the Oval design means it is easy to modify the user interface for different patient groups. The ability to customise the Oval device is proving popular with pharmaceutical companies, and two distinctly different injection moulded devices are being developed for different patient populations.