AFT Pharmaceuticals claims world first with paracetamol-ibruprofen combo

Auckland based AFT Pharmaceuticals, a closely held drug development company, is claiming a world first with its Maxigesic pain relief tablet that combines paracetamol and ibuprofen.

 The company launched the tablet last month after beginning trials in 2004 and the kiwi firm hopes to crack into the US$20 billion global market for analgesics.

Company founder Hartley Atkinson says he was surprised the combination hadn't been developed by any major drug company.  

"We wondered, and it was a big worry," said Atkinson. "But such a trial hadn't been done; if they had our global patents wouldn't have been granted." 

The timing of the launch coincides with growing debate about the benefits of combining the pain relief properties of paracetamol with the anti-inflammatory ibuprofen.

The U.K.'s NHS, the world's largest publicly funded health service, says the combination may help to reduce pain and fever.

BMJ, the medical journal, published the results of a trial in September last year that concluded that taking the two drugs together was more effective than paracetamol alone in alleviating the early onset of fever in children. 

Atkinson says AFT's next move will be to license Maxigesic internationally and it has an agreement with New York-based strategic transaction advisory firm Ferghana Partners to bring the tablet to markets outside of Australasia. 

"We're comfortable with Ferghana as they have a lot of history in this area," he said. "They're someone who knows the process very well. If you're selling a nice house, you really need a real estate agent to do it." 

Maxigesic was developed with the help of New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, which put up funds in 2005 that helped AFT accelerate its research. 

The analgesic's development and licensing could also help boost the image of the New Zealand therapeutics industry, which while promising at the research and development level, has often failed to produce commercialised products, Atkinson says. 

The ability of New Zealand manufacturers to produce serious quantities of new biotechnology products is limited, but licensing of new technologies, product and processes is one way to get income back to this country. 

"This is one way to get runs on the board," said Dr Atkinson. "Hopefully we'll get results and progress in the industry by just doing it." 

Since its formation in 1997, AFT has grown at about 30 percent annually and will turn over about $32 million this year, the company said.

-BUSINESSWIRE