The country’s largest manufacturer of veterinary pharmaceutical products has made a “significant” investment in Lawrence-based CritiTech Inc.

St. Joseph, Mo.-based Phoenix Scientific Inc. announced Wednesday that it had made an undisclosed financial investment in the Lawrence company, which is developing a new drug delivery system for the pharmaceutical industry.

The deal will give Phoenix Scientific an exclusive right of first refusal to use any drug technology with veterinary applications developed by CritiTech. Phoenix also received stock in the company, but Kevin Schinze, president and chief executive of Phoenix, declined to disclose details of the deal.

CritiTech’s technology, which was developed by researchers at Kansas University, is designed to allow certain chemical compounds to be more easily absorbed by the body. Schinze said Phoenix was interested in partnering with the company because it might speed up the use of CritiTech’s technology in veterinary applications.

“We like that we’ll be able to get in on the ground floor instead of being 10 years behind the curve,” Schinze said.

Attempts to reach Sam Campbell, CritiTech president, were unsuccessful, but in a statement he said the company was “extremely pleased” to have the support of Phoenix and its management team.

CritiTech, 1321 Wakarusa Drive, was founded in 1997. It uses research conducted by Bala Subramaniam, a KU professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and director of KU’s Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis.

Wednesday’s announcement followed an announcement in early August that the company received a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue development of a new cancer drug.