EPM speaks to Steve Wick, vice president of R&D and chief technology officer at Kindeva Drug Delivery about changes in formulations and how patients are being put at the centre of development.
Patient medicine
How are drug delivery systems changing to become more patient-centered?
Over the past decade, there has been a transformation within the pharmaceutical industry surrounding the integration of drug delivery system technologies and devices. Historically, the pharmaceutical industry focused on the drug and how to most effectively and safely deliver this drug to the patient. Although safety and efficacy remain paramount, healthcare providers and patients are increasingly interested in an improved overall patient experience. We’ve seen a focus on factors such as dosing regimen, remediation of side-effects, human factors, ease of use, and form factor convenience. Within this transformation, numerous technologies have been developed to improve the overall patient experience: sustained release technologies, implantable technologies, pen-injectors, self-regulating systems, and mobile health/wearable technologies. The future of drug delivery will incorporate expanded patient-centric technologies such as bio-feedback systems, tissue targeted drug delivery, long-term drug delivery (months), and an expansion of mobile health solutions. While the exact nature of innovation is difficult to predict, the next generation of drug delivery innovation will come through aligning technological solutions to patient needs.
With respect to inhaled medicines, how do you anticipate formulations will evolve over the next five to 10 years?
The delivery of higher doses (multiple milligrams and higher) is the challenge that limits the future of inhalation therapies. I suspect that expansion of the dosage limits will continue to be an area of focus over this five-10 year time horizon. The development of novel Dry Powder Inhalation (DPI) technologies and devices will likely play a significant role in our ability to deliver higher doses to the lungs. DPI technologies with higher efficiency in terms of respirable dose or carrier-free formulation technologies will enable higher doses.