Bioavailability Breakthrough: Aegis’ enhancement tech works in pill form
The California, US-based firm announced it had applied its Intravail absorption enhancement tech to a pill for the first time last week, explaining that the formulation had boosted the bioavailability of the decongestant phenylephrine by more than 50%.
The Intravail platform consists of alkylsaccharide derived excipients that – in previous studies – have been shown to allow small molecule agents and therapeutic proteins of up to 30,000 Daltons to pass through the nasal mucosal membrane.
The firm also claims the excipients prevent the irritation that is sometimes associated with the delivery of large proteins through sensitive nasal tissues.
Aegis said: “The extension of the use of Intravail into solid dosage forms represents a significant expansion of the broad applicability of this technology. Intravail excipients are equally soluble in pharmaceutically accepted oils thus permitting use as oral absorption enhancers in gel caps as well.”
Since licensing the Intravail technology for transmucosal delivery of drugs developed at the University of Alabama Medical Centre in Birmingham, Aegis has filed more than a half dozen additional patent applications to significantly expand the scope and geographic coverage of its claims.
The firm said it “is now seeking licensees for the application of Intravail to a broad range of over-the-counter drugs where increased bioavailability or more rapid onset of action would offer improved performance and significant market differentiation in a crowded field.”
Bioavailability Challenge 2014
Drug bioavailability is a hot topic for the drug industry, with both small molecule-focused pharmaceutical firms and biopharmaceutical developers increasingly interested in technologies that can help them make promising therapeutic candidates into sellable products.
On March 27 are holding the second edition of our “Bioavailability Challenge 2014” a free to ‘attend’ online webinar series on March 20 focused on the difficulties developers face in ensuring their drug candidates are bioavailable.
Our editorial programme will feature contributions from Yorkshire Biotec and analysts group Frost & Sullivan will share its overview of the bioavailability services market.
The event will also feature presentations from scientists from Ashland, BASF, Dow and many more…
Click here to sign up for the show. See you on March 27.
