BIO 2025: Broadening Potential Use of Long-Acting Injectables
In an interview with The Pharma Navigator, before BIO 2025, David Westberg from Nanexa goes into detail about long-acting injectables and discusses how a new advanced system is helping to facilitate their development.
Long-acting injectables (LAIs) have been popular for some time, particularly within the mental health field; however, they are being increasingly explored for other therapeutic indications. For David Westberg, CEO of Nanexa — specialist in injectable drug development — while industry will continue to see growth in the field of mental health conditions for LAIs, other indication areas, such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity, will see dramatic growth.
“We know that adherence to treatment is quite low, actually in [diabetes and obesity] patients actually lower than 50%, according to Polonsky et al. (1),” Westberg notes. “Having less frequent dosing is one of the tools that you can use to actually increase the compliance adherence to treatment.”
Another area of interest for LAIs is in oncology, Westberg continues. “Two of our clinical programs have been within oncology. We’ve done some work with intratumoral administration. So, there is a broad potential usage of LAIs,” he says.
Formulating LAIs does come with some challenges, Westberg explains. For example, finding a balance between burst release and long-acting release is key, particularly if working with compounds that have high water solubility, he emphasizes. Another challenge is related to the potential volume of the injectable, Westberg adds.
Nanexa has developed a new system for long-acting drug delivery — PharmaShell. This approach involves the coating of microparticles of APIs with an inorganic oxide that has very low solubility, Westberg reveals. “So, when we do a suspension of those particles and inject them, for instance, subcutaneously, the shell material will start to dissolve into its ions and leave the injection site,” he says. As the shell dissolves, the API is left to gradually and continuously be released into the bloodstream over a period of time, Westberg specifies.
Click the video above to view the full interview
Reference
Polonsky, W.H.; Arora, R.; Faurby, M.; Fernandes, J.; Liebl, A. Higher Rates of Persistence and Adherence in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Initiating Once-Weekly vs Daily Injectable Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists in US Clinical Practice (STAY Study). Diabetes Ther. 2021, 13 (1), 175–187.
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