Nanoformulated anti-fungals

Biosergen AS utvikler nye formuleringer basert på nano-partikler. De nye produkter i dette projektet vil være nye formuleringer av Biosergens utviklings produkt BSG005. Generelt utnyttes det, at nano formulerete legemidler kan nå andre mål enn tradisionelt formulerete produkter, og de kan dessuten have andre toxicologiske profiler eller bli administrert i lavere doser pga av akkumulering i de infektiøse foci. Mengden av legemiddel i formuleringen og dets stabilitet har været utfordringer, som er testet. I den forløpne periode er det fokusert nettopp på oppløselighed, test av forskjellige nano partikler og loading av API i nano partiklerne og deres stabilitet. Udvælgelse af nanopartikler er fremskredet.

More than 1.6 million people are estimated to die of fungal diseases each year, and more than 150 million people have serious fungal diseases. Drugs used in clinics today are becoming resistant or have serious off-target toxic effects, and there is a need for new and better treatments. Biosergen AS is a drug development company that at present has an antifungal compound in clinical phase I. Due to the promising properties of this compound, Biosergen aims to develop additional products based on this lead drug and thereby expand as an innovative Norwegian drug development company with several antifungal applications. The new products to be developed within the project will be new formulations of the Biosergen lead drug. These formulations will be based on the new nanomaterial. In general, Nano formulated drugs can reach other targets than traditionally formulations, they may have different toxicity profile and they may be administrated in lower doses due to accumulation in the sites of infection. The proposed project will have a high level of innovation with several scientific challenges. Both the formulation and the design of the formulations have to be adapted to the lead drug, the specific type of NANO particles and the intended applications. Drug loading, drug stability, bioavailability and pharmacokinetics will be main issues to be resolved with a combination of in vitro and in vivo experiments. Outcome and impact The main objective of the project is to develop two new formulations based on nanotechnology and execute one or two of them all the way through pre-clinical phase. At the end of the project it is intended that Biosergen has one or two new lead drug formulations ready to go into clinical phase I. Due to the level of innovation in this project it is expected that it will increase the competence within formulation of drugs in nanoparticles and how release kinetics from nanoparticles affects fungistatic inhibition/fungicidal efficacy and drug safety in general.