Lubrizol Expands Partnership with the Population Council

The Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) Division of Lubrizol Life Science Health (LLS Health) is expanding its product development partnership with the Population Council, an international nongovernmental non-profit organization conducting research around critical health and development issues. 

Under the partnership, LLS Health scientists will develop an optimized contraceptive vaginal system for protection against unintended pregnancy. This builds on a decades-long partnership between the two organizations to optimize the delivery of several vaginal products, including the Population Council’s proprietary progestin, Nestorone, and MIV-150, and manufacturing lead formulations for toxicology. 

“The partnership with the Population Council is a reflection of Lubrizol Corporation’s ‘Live Better’ mission, which pledges to improve at least 2 billion lives by 2028 through utilizing its formulating expertise, testing capabilities, market insights and global scale,” said Bruce Frank, vice president of operations and client services at the CDMO Division, LLS Health.  “It is great to collaborate once again on this latest project, a next generation vaginal delivery product for extended duration of contraception.”

“Over the years, we have built expertise in women’s health, so we are well positioned to optimize a contraceptive product that could be more cost-effective, and easier to manufacture,” commented Barbara Morgan, general manager, CDMO Division, LLS Health. “We hope this product development and partnership could help lead to more effective technologies to improve women’s lives across the globe.” 

“Lubrizol's Pathway thermoplastic polyurethanes are well recognized as an effective option for many drug delivery systems,” remarked James Sailer, vice president and executive director of the Center for Biomedical Research at the Population Council. “Now that we have a proof of concept for our contraceptive vaginal system, Lubrizol was an obvious partner to help us develop a design that is scaleable to manufacture.”

The project is the latest in the arena of women’s health for LLS Health, which also recently worked on the development of IPM’s Dapivirine Ring, giving women in Sub-Saharan Africa a long-acting HIV prevention option.