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Aphios granted US patent for nanotechnology formulation of poorly soluble drugs

Aphios has announced that it has been granted United States Patent No. 8,703,727 entitled “Nanotechnology Formulation of Poorly Soluble Compounds,” for difficult to formulate and deliver drugs.

Poorly soluble drug candidates are difficult to administer even as intravenous drugs. Low concentrations may limit therapeutic response and require long infusion periods which are poorly tolerated and raise the risk of infection.

Administered orally, the drugs are often poorly absorbed. Lack of sufficient oral bioavailability hinders development of potential drug candidates to their full potential.

By enhancing the solubility and oral bioavailability of such compounds, therapeutically beneficial products can be developed, especially where long-term exposure is needed for maximum therapeutic effect.

These techniques can be applied to a number of existing drugs as well as to several potential drug candidates being developed by the National Cancer Institute and in the cancer pipeline of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

"Our nanotechnology formulation process will make it easier to successfully administer these poorly soluble drugs," says Aphios’ president and CEO, Dr. Trevor P. Castor.

"Drug nanoparticles are encapsulated in biodegradable polymer nanospheres that can be administered intravenously and/or orally by allowing transport in the stomach and enhancing bioavailability. Both the drug nanoparticles and the encapsulation of these particles in biodegradable polymer nanospheres can be formed utilizing supercritical fluid technologies. This ‘green’ approach averts the use of conventional organic phase techniques that utilize a number of processing steps and large quantities of organic solvents, and can leave residual organic solvents in the final drug product."