Enabling Drug Development Through Drug Delivery Manufacturing

The past few years have seen growing recognition of the need for patient-centric drug delivery devices that support effective administration of new biologic medications with large molecules. This has inspired significant investment in this area by global pharma players.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the urgency of moving the point of care from the hospital to the home. Particularly in the case of biologic-based treatments, the preference has clearly become self-administration from home.

As a result, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to wearable drug delivery devices as the preferred method for bringing new medications to the market. This has placed the burden of responsibility on device manufacturers to respond with robust and reliable devices that are also easy-to-use and able to support digital connectivity.

Eitan Medical has been at the forefront of these changes. The Sorrel™ drug delivery platform is a solution for pharma partners that facilitates the transition to safe and reliable self-administration at home.

The key to developing the optimal solution has been to understand and address pharma partners’ needs, which often centre around flexibility – both of the device itself and the manufacturing capabilities of the device developer.

EMBRACING FLEXIBILITY

With the advancement of pharmaceutical technologies and investments in research and development, pharmaceutical companies are developing more complex large-molecule biological drugs, increasing the molecular weight and the volume of medication to be infused.

Drugs currently under development require subcutaneous delivery at higher volumes – 10–25 mL and even higher. Due to the physical properties of biologics, including their higher viscosity, these medications cannot be concentrated into a smaller dose to fit the capacity limitations of delivery devices currently on the market.

Combination drug delivery devices, including prefilled syringes (PFSs), auto-injectors and pen injectors, are generally favoured by pharmaceutical companies due to their flexibility, ease-of-use and reduced risk of patient error and injury. However, most of the devices currently available on the market are designed for small-volume drugs and can only deliver between 1 and 2 mL at a time – far below the required volume for newer large-molecule biological drugs.

Eitan Medical’s Sorrel platform solution (Figure 1) is compatible with both vials and cartridges in a wide variety of volumes, ranging from 3 mL up to 50 mL.