
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Diabetes and asthma are common chronic diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, it was estimated that 420 million people had diabetes and more than 339 million people suffer from asthma globally in 2016. It is estimated that in 2012, 24 million and 1.5 million people died of complications caused by diabetes and asthma respectively.
Currently, there is no permanent cure for diabetes and asthma, patients can only take drugs to prevent the onset of disease and relieve the pain temporarily. However, diabetes and asthma drugs will be quickly metabolized by the human body and the therapeutic effect of active pharmaceutical ingredients can only last for a short period. Also, the patients may need to take a higher dosage of the drug to offset the loss of pharmaceutical ingredients before they reach the target site on the body.
We have developed a new protective layer manufacturing technology with high encapsulation efficiency, which allows the control of the release and delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients. It can prolong the therapeutic effect of drugs, increase the drug retention time in the body, and eventually reduce the dosage, systemic side effects and toxicity of the drugs.
TECHNOLOGY FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS
In the past, some people have successfully developed slow- and controlled-release long-acting dosage forms with the use of lipid vesicles and proliposomes. They can carry the active pharmaceutical ingredients and enter the human body. Nevertheless, they are very unstable outside the human body and the protective effect of some of the dosage forms disappears once the drugs are administrated into the body.
On top of that, the manufacturing process is very difficult to control. The protective layer may crack or deform, and the leakage of active ingredients may occur during the drying and rehydration process, resulting in a low encapsulation efficiency.
We have developed a new formulation or protective layer manufacturing technology with high encapsulation efficiency. Solid lipid vesicles are manufactured to encapsulate the drugs and serve as a drug delivery system. This not only achieves a better drug delivery effect but also increases the effective time and stability of the drug. Furthermore, the dosage, side effects and toxicity of the drug can be reduced.
Our animal study demonstrated a slow transportation rate of pharmaceutical ingredients encapsulated in liposomes and showed that the rapid loss of drugs in the body is prevented.
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS
The technology can be used to fabricate dehydrated lipid vesicles for drug delivery, such as:
- encapsulating existing drugs for common chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma
- fabricating aerosolized liposome carrier for pulmonary delivery of SBS
- conjugating with targeting ligands to enrich site-specific therapeutic action
Taking Salbutamol sulfate (SBS), a model asthma alleviating drug as an example, its dose is about 100 micrograms per inhalation, and it needs to be administered once every four hours and four times a day. If this technology is applied, the therapeutic effect of SBS can be prolonged by 4 times, and patients only need to take the drug once a day. This will greatly reduce the inconvenience in patients' daily lives.
MARKET TRENDS & OPPORTUNITIES
Our modified SBS products can improve ordinary inhalants and drugs for treating asthma and diabetes respectively.
BENEFITS
- Reduce the frequency of drug administration
- Reduce dosage, side effects and toxicity of the drugs
- Increase drugs' stability
Available for Licensing
Nano-vesicle, Liposome, drug delivery, drug formulation, prolonged therapeutic effect, asthma, Albuterol