Polymeric microspheres have proven to be an excellent vehicle for controlled delivery applications. They offer unique advantages over traditional methods of drug delivery for patients, health institutions and drug manufacturers around the world.
Helping to tackle a global health issue
In addition to improving patient’s comfort and lifestyle, microsphere drug formulation (also known as micro-particles) can be considered to be one of the answers to a major challenge facing global health: patients’ non-compliance with drug therapies. Therapy non-adherence directly impacts patient health as it significantly reduces treatment effectiveness and patient safety. In developed countries, it is estimated that non-adherence to therapy for chronic diseases averages 50%1, hence representing a substantial proportion of the economic resources in the healthcare sector.
Drug manufacturing challenges faced by the pharma industry
Despite the obvious benefits that microsphere drugs are offering patients and health institutions, manufacturing microspheres is challenging mainly due to the characteristics of the polymer encapsulating the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API).
Today the majority of drug manufacturers developing complex microsphere drug formulation are traditionally facing numerous production challenges including microsphere filtration and drying efficiency, batch consistency and reproducibility, product yield optimisation, integration of PAT initiative production scale-up.
Overcoming the production hurdles through innovation & technology
A unique microsphere process technology called the MicroSphere Refiner (MSR), has been prototyped and developed over the last two decades by PSL (Powder Systems Limited) in collaboration with industry players to overcome these traditional manufacturing challenges. The MSR technology has successfully enabled drug manufacturers around the world to market microsphere drugs from their development pipeline. It is now used in commercial microsphere production worldwide.
Microsphere Summit 2019 (June 26th and 27th, Philadelphia)
Later this month PSL will host the 2019 Microsphere Summit in Philadelphia, PA, highlighting the latest industry practices and technologies in the field of Long Acting Release (LAR) injectable drug development and production.
PSL and its partners are kindly inviting global microsphere drug developers and manufacturers to this informative event to discuss the latest industry developments. Review the programme here.
Reference:
1. Vermeire E, et al., "Patient adherence to treatment: three decades of research. A comprehensive review," J Clin Pharm Ther, 26(5), 331–342 (2001) doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2710.2001.00363.x. [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar].
