Pharmaceutical and healthcare company, Stirling Products (ASX:STI) has appointed former ResMed Limited and Ventracor director, Ross Harricks to commercialise the drug inhalation device.
Harricks worked as marketing executive for the Nucleus Group, then Australia's leading international
medical technology group, Telectronics - pacemakers; Cochlear - bionic ear, Ausonics - ultrasound and Medtel - distribution.
Harricks has been involved at all levels of development and raised funds, guided the design of products, obtained regulatory approvals worldwide (FDA, CE Mark) and built widespread technology adoption and endorsement with leading medical institutions and opinion leaders in US and Europe.
Stirling Products' delivery devices are designed to provide for a dramatically improved safety profile of "blockbuster drugs" when many of these drugs move off patents to become generic products.
Drugs like the Pfizer drug Lipitor is moving off patent to generic next year. Despite a decline, it had global sales of US$11.4 billion in 2009, providing a large opportunity for companies with a unique and differentiated drug delivery platform.
This creates an opportunity for Stirling Products to package the generic version with its drug delivery device to provide a new proprietary package that can be marketed at a significant premium to the other generic versions due to an expected improved safety profile in many cases.