Samil Pharmaceutical announced Monday that it has signed an MOU with Aptar Pharma, a multinational company headquartered in the U.S., to secure competitiveness in the global eye drops business. The MOU was signed at the Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPHI) 2023 last week in Barcelona, Spain.

Aptar Group is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of a broad range of drug and consumer product dispensing technology. 

Under the MOU, Aptar Pharma agreed to provide Samil Pharmaceutical with its Ophthalmic Squeeze Dispenser (OSD) technology and respective technical support, and Samil Pharmaceutical targets to expand its contract manufacturing organization (CMO) and contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business with Aptar Pharma's OSD technology.

Multi-dose eye drops can be contaminated by bacteria during long-term use due to body and air contact after opening. To prevent this, preservatives are used, but some of the preservative ingredients can cause eye pain or other side effects, such as cytotoxicity.

Preservative-free single dose eye drops have the problem of a much higher impact on the environment due to the multiple amount of plastic packaging used for this delivery format compared to multi-dose formats.

However, by applying the OSD technology developed by Aptar Pharma, it is possible to produce multi-dose eye drops without adding preservatives.

"With the Aptar Pharma's OSD technology, we will be able to develop and supply preservative-free multi-dose eye drops to consumers," said a Samil Pharmaceutical official. "Based on this partnership, we can strengthen the competitiveness of Samil Pharmaceutical's global CMO/CDMO business."