University of London licenses drug delivery technology

Licensing agreement

West Lothian, Scotland-based Encap Drug Delivery, which provides development and manufacturing services for the pharmaceutical industry, has agreed a licence with the School of Pharmacy at the University of London for the use of the School’s drug delivery system, Phloral. This coating technology, designed to target the release of drugs to the colon, will form part of a range of colonic delivery systems.

Of late, delivery of drugs to the colon has gained increased importance, not just for treatment of local diseases associated with the colon, such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer and irritable bowel syndrome, but also for the colon’s potential as a site for the absorption of certain molecules due to the decreased levels of efflux transporters and cytochrome enzymes that are responsible for a high level of unwanted side effects. Phloral could possibly be suitable for the oral delivery of peptides and proteins, oligonucleotides and vaccines.

Existing colon delivery systems generally involve coating drugs with polymeric materials that do not dissolve in the low pH of the stomach or upper intestine, but will dissolve in the higher pH of the lower intestine. But coatings that rely on pH have the potential to be unreliable, due to the large intra and inter-patient variability in transit times and pH. The Phloral technology provides fail-safe delivery of drug to the target site by employing two complimentary mechanisms to trigger drug release. As well as a pH dependant coating it also incorporates a component that is broken down specifically by the microbiota in the colonic region.

One of the problems with colonic delivery is the relatively low amount of water that is available for dissolution of drugs in this part of the gastrointestinal tract. The combination of a reliable colonic targeting technology and the delivery of drugs in a liquid dosage form may provide a significant advance for the delivery of a wide range of drugs to the colon.