Zoono Group Limited announced the development of the first of its specialty products for use in the clinical, medical and OTC sectors. The next steps for Zoono are to complete further laboratory testing and clinical trials to support commercialisation of its new product. To that end, recognising that Zoono does not have the necessary resources to undertake that task, it has entered into a Co-Development and Licence Agreement (Agreement) with Douglas Pharmaceuticals Limited (Douglas).

Zoono and Douglas will work in close collaboration to develop and commercialise the use of Zoono based specialty products, with a nasal spray being the first such product that is being considered. The key points arising from the Agreement are: Each party has agreed to grant to the other party a licence to its `Background IP' to enable the parties to jointly develop specialty products for sale. The initial products may include the nasal spray.

All development costs and profits are to be shared equally. By way of background, Douglas was founded in 1967 and employs over 700 staff in New Zealand and overseas. It is New Zealand's largest family-owned healthcare company and exports to 40 countries with the US and Europe as the largest markets for in-house developed pharmaceutical products.

It supplies automated dispensing machines to New Zealand pharmacies, as well as manufacturing and distributing a range of consumer healthcare products. Douglas has recently opened a Innovation facility on its West Auckland campus for research and development of novel medical products for a range of serious unmet medical needs. The Zoono /Douglas joint venture has also employed Dr. Wagner-MacKenzie to drive the commercialisation of this unique technology, via Douglas channels.