The licensing deal, valued at up to $165 million at that time, is for a once-daily injectable formulation of insulin, called Basulin, just entering Phase III testing.
Flamel and BMS hope that using human insulin may reduce the risk of side effects caused by immunological responses and extend insulin delivery to include full 24-hour cover.
Flamel is currently developed two polymer-based delivery technologies for medical applications - the Medusa technology, designed to deliver therapeutic proteins and Micropump, a controlled release and taste-masking technology for the oral administration of small molecule drugs.
The company had signed GlaxoSmithkline to apply its Micropump technology to a sachet formulation of Augmentin (amoxicillin/clavulanate), a blockbuster antibiotic but this agreement was terminated in January.
