Capsules Our oral drug delivery technologies include improved formulations for gelatine capsules that have comparable performance but with less patient risk than for conventional formulations and with freedom from competing patents.
For oil-containing capsules, our technologies provide an alternative to conventional SEDDS for the delivery of drugs in soft or hard gelatine capsules. Products using our Polyaphron Dispersion technology have the advantage that they can deliver the same drugs in solution but containing much lower levels of surfactant (less than 2% compared to 30 – 40% in typical SEDDS formulations). High levels of surfactants in oral preparations are thought to pose a potential health risk for patients but SEDDS are entirely dependant on them.
For powder-containing capsules, our SDD technology can delivery oil-soluble drugs, in solution, in the form of a ‘dry’, free-flowing powder. This means that, unlike conventional powder capsules, the oil soluble drug is released within the gastro-intestinal tract in solution (rather than as a crystalline solid) and in a water-dispersible, highly dispersed form thus providing ease of absorption and giving the potential for improved performance compared to conventional products.
Tablets Our SDD technology enables oil-soluble drugs to be incorporated into tablets with potentially superior performance compared to conventional tablets. This is because SDD-based tablets contain the oil-soluble active in solution, rather than as a crystalline solid. This has the potential to improve the speed of absorption from the gut and improve the bioavailability of the drug. The free-flowing powders that result from SDD technology incorporate tiny droplets (aphrons) of drug-containing oils but are compressible into tablets with the minimal addition of conventional excipients.
Like all our other technologies, SDD is protected by patents and patent applications.
Parenteral We can offer the possibility of drug delivery by intravenous, intramuscular or sub-cutaneous routes by the use of our novel, Polyaphron Dispersion technology. This provides for concentrated dispersions of drug-containing oil droplets having very low surfactant concentrations (1% or less) of the correct size (less than five micrometer diameter). The technology is flexible and able to utilise a wide range of pharmaceutically acceptable oils and continuous phase materials for optimum effect without the problems associated with high surfactant levels.
Patches and Wound Dressings
Our TFE technology forms the basis of many kinds of topical (skin) and buccal patches for the controlled release of drugs. Because of its flexible nature and the Polyaphron Dispersion technology that forms its core, we are able to provide the potential for effective solutions to a very wide range of controlled release application problems, especially for difficult, oil-soluble drugs. This makes a very effective basis for various wound-dressing applications.
TFE, in combination with some of our other technologies, also provides novel and effective methods for the delivery of drugs through the buccal cavity route, avoiding some of the difficulties associated with the peroral route (including the ‘first pass’ liver metabolism). As with many of our other technologies, the oil-soluble drugs are presented to the body in the form of highly dispersed ‘aphrons’ wherein the drug is dissolved, making for efficient delivery.
