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New nanostructured drug delivery system shows stability at 6 months, speaker says
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BOSTON — A new device in development for the sustained release of ocular therapies is nanostructured to optimize drug delivery, is completely bioerodible and can be administered intraocularly intramuscularly or subcutaneously, a speaker here said.
Focusing on long-term sustained delivery, the delivery system, called Tethadur, is designed for the release of large molecules, including antibodies to the eye, according to Paul Ashton, president and CEO of pSivida.
Paul Ashton
“Basically, you can take an electronics-grade silicon wafer and, using semiconductor technology, you can porosify it so the whole thing becomes extremely porous, like a honeycomb,” he told attendees at the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit. “The diameter of those pores can be controlled with extremely high precision. So we can tailor these pores to fit antibodies and control their release by making the pores larger or smaller.”
“It’s analogous to a tube of tennis balls,” he explained. “If filled with tennis balls, the balls come out one by one. But if you put ping pong balls in there, they come out much easier.”
Clinical data show 6 months of delivery stability with bevacizumab, which suggests that the nanoparticle is capable of accurate drug delivery over 4 to 6 months, Ashton said.
To date, the Tethadur has only been tested in animals. The company expects to begin human trials by the end of the year, according to Ashton.
Disclosure: Ashton is president and CEO of pSivida.