CyDex Inc. and Aradigm Corp. announced Thursday that they had entered into a two-year collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize inhalants designed to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.

Under the agreement, CyDex will cover 40 percent of collaboration costs, while Aradigm will be responsible for 60 percent.

“There is a lot of interest in inhalation products containing a combination of drugs as these have proven to be very popular with millions of asthma and COPD patients,” said Igor Gonda, Aradigm’s president and chief executive officer. “We are pleased to be working with CyDex – a company with an excellent track record of developing and partnering innovative pharmaceutical products.”

Lenexa-based CyDex is a pharmaceuticals company that grew out of research at Kansas University’s Higuchi Biosciences Center. Earlier this year, CyDex announced that it had licensed its drug-delivery compound for use by Critical Therapeutics Inc., which is developing an injectable formulation of zileuton, a drug used to treat asthma.