Dr. Vincent Jannin Bio, director of R&D and head of Innovaform Accelerator, Lonza Capsugel, discusses the next generation of capsule and coating technologies, from advancing oral biologics and targeted drug delivery to improving manufacturing efficiency and sustainability.
As coating and capsule technologies move beyond conventional functions, which recent innovations do you see as most transformative for advancing targeted, patient-centric drug delivery and more efficient pharmaceutical manufacturing?
Over the last decade, we have witnessed a fundamental evolution in the role of capsules and coatings. They are no longer simply dosage form components. They have become enabling technologies that can actively influence where, when, and how a therapy is delivered.
One of the most transformative developments has been the emergence of integrated enteric capsule technologies. Traditionally, achieving gastro-resistance required multiple manufacturing steps involving sealing, coating, drying, and quality control. Today, enteric functionality can be incorporated directly into the capsule shell, creating opportunities to simplify manufacturing while maintaining robust protection of acid-sensitive compounds.
At the same time, advances in polymer science have significantly improved our ability to control drug release throughout the gastrointestinal tract. Rather than relying on broad pH-triggered release mechanisms, modern polymer systems allow increasingly precise targeting to specific intestinal regions. This level of control is particularly important for sensitive molecules, including peptides, proteins, and microbiome-based therapies, whose performance can depend strongly on the site of release.
What excites me most is the convergence of these technologies with patient-centric drug delivery. By combining gastro-protection, site-specific targeting, and manufacturing simplicity within a single platform, we can design dosage forms that improve therapeutic performance while reducing development complexity. Ultimately, capsules are evolving from passive containers into sophisticated delivery platforms that will play a central role in the next generation of oral therapies.
Oral biologics are often viewed as a frontier for next-generation drug delivery. From your perspective, what scientific, formulation and manufacturing barriers must the industry overcome to make oral delivery of complex molecules a more commercially viable reality?
Oral biologics represent one of the most compelling opportunities in drug delivery, but also one of the most demanding scientific challenges.
The primary barriers remain protecting the molecule throughout gastrointestinal transit and enabling sufficient absorption to achieve a therapeutic response. Proteins, peptides, and other biologics are inherently vulnerable to acidic conditions and enzymatic degradation in the stomach and small intestine. Even when successfully protected, these large molecules face formidable biological barriers, including the mucus layer, epithelial cell membranes, and tight junctions that restrict transport across the intestinal wall.
The industry has made considerable progress in overcoming these challenges. Advances in enteric delivery systems, absorption-enhancing technologies, lipid-based formulations, and site-specific release strategies have demonstrated that meaningful oral bioavailability can be achieved for selected molecules. Importantly, our growing understanding of gastrointestinal physiology is allowing formulation scientists to design systems that work with biological processes rather than attempting to bypass them.
However, commercial success requires more than demonstrating bioavailability. Manufacturing robustness, scalability, reproducibility, and cost-effectiveness are equally important. Technologies that perform well in early development must ultimately be translated into globally manufacturable products capable of consistent performance throughout their lifecycle.
I believe the future belongs to integrated delivery platforms that combine molecule protection, targeted release, and absorption enhancement into scalable dosage forms. As these technologies mature, oral biologics will increasingly move from isolated success stories to a mainstream therapeutic modality.
How are advances in enteric coatings, polymer science and capsule changing the way companies balance factors including performance and formulation across the product lifecycle?
Historically, formulators often faced difficult trade-offs between performance, manufacturability, and development speed. Today's advances in polymer science and capsule technologies are helping to remove many of those compromises.
Refinements in enteric polymer systems have greatly improved the precision and predictability of pH-triggered release. While the underlying chemistries are well established, recent developments have enabled tighter control over dissolution characteristics, allowing formulators to better align drug release with physiological conditions and therapeutic objectives.
At the same time, next-generation enteric capsule technologies provide an alternative pathway to achieving gastro-resistance without relying on conventional post-filling coating operations. This reduces exposure to heat and solvents, simplifies production, and provides greater flexibility for sensitive APIs. The ability to tailor capsule shell composition also improves compatibility with increasingly complex formulations, including lipid-based systems and permeation enhancers used to improve bioavailability.
Another important advancement is the increased use of physiologically relevant predictive tools during development. Models such as the Dynamic Gastrointestinal Model (DGM) are helping researchers better understand how dosage forms behave under realistic
gastrointestinal conditions, improving confidence in the translation from laboratory testing to clinical performance.
Taken together, these innovations are enabling a more rational design approach in which formulation performance, patient requirements, and manufacturing considerations can be optimized simultaneously rather than sequentially. This represents an important shift toward more predictable and efficient development pathways.
Beyond improving drug performance, how are advances in coating and capsule technologies helping pharmaceutical companies optimize manufacturing efficiency, resource utilization and broader sustainability goals?
The most impactful innovations are those that simultaneously improve drug delivery, manufacturing efficiency, and sustainability.
Functional capsule technologies can simplify manufacturing by integrating delivery attributes directly into the capsule shell. Eliminating secondary coating operations reduces processing time, lowers complexity, and minimizes exposure of sensitive compounds to heat, moisture, and solvents.
This also has environmental benefits. Conventional coating processes can require significant energy consumption, solvent use, and waste management. By reducing or eliminating these steps, manufacturers can improve operational efficiency while lowering their environmental footprint.
From my perspective, sustainability begins during formulation design. Delivery technologies that reduce processing steps, improve manufacturing robustness, and optimize resource utilization create long-term value across the product lifecycle while supporting broader sustainability objectives.
As more oral biologic and complex-molecule candidates advance through development, what should innovators consider when selecting a strategic partner that can support bioavailability, GI targeting, manufacturability and eventual commercial scale?
The next generation of oral biologics will require deep integration of formulation science, drug delivery expertise, and manufacturing capabilities.
When selecting a partner, innovators should look beyond individual technologies and assess whether the organization can support the full development pathway, from early formulation screening to commercial manufacturing. Understanding GI physiology, bioavailability challenges, and formulation-performance relationships is essential, but so is the ability to scale successfully.
At Lonza Capsugel, our approach is built around connecting these capabilities. Through the Innovaform Accelerator in Colmar, we collaborate with customers to address complex oral delivery challenges using advanced formulation and capsule technologies. Combined with our GMP manufacturing capabilities in Tampa, this enables a seamless pathway from formulation optimization through technology transfer, scale-up, and commercial production.
Ultimately, the best partnerships reduce development risk, accelerate timelines, and improve the probability of successful market adoption.
Looking ahead, which emerging trends are reshaping the future of complex therapies, and what might they mean for patient access, adherence and treatment adoption?
We are entering an era where advances in drug delivery are becoming as important as advances in the molecules themselves.
One of the most significant trends is the expansion of oral delivery opportunities for biologics, vaccines, and other complex therapeutics. Advances in capsule technologies, enteric systems, and absorption-enhancing approaches are steadily increasing the range of molecules that can be delivered orally.
I am particularly excited by multifunctional capsule platforms that combine protection, targeting, and release control within a single system. These technologies have the potential to improve both therapeutic performance and patient experience.
A second major trend is the use of artificial intelligence and digital development tools in formulation design and manufacturing. AI-driven optimization can accelerate development, improve reproducibility, and support the production of increasingly complex dosage forms.
Ultimately, the convergence of advanced drug delivery, digital technologies, and deeper understanding of GI physiology will make complex therapies more accessible and patient centric. The greatest impact will be measured not only in drug performance, but in improved adherence, broader access, and better outcomes for patients.
