Drug and vaccine delivery
Drug delivery systems make drugs easier to take and more effective. Advanced systems are able to improve compliance, enhance drug targeting, lower side effects, and reduce costs. Formulating drugs sfor optimal administration (e.g., oral, transdermal, injection, inhalation) and controlling their release in the body is an intricate and rapidly evolving science.
Advanced drug delivery systems emerged with the 1974 approval of Ocusert, a slow-release glaucoma treatment. Today it is estimated that 20%, or 104 billion US dollars, of 2005 worldwide drug sales will be attributed to delivery system science and engineering (source: Celegene Market Research).
Products currently on the market that rely on drug delivery science include oral forumations (Procardia, XL, a once daily calcium channel blocker for treatment of angina and hypertension, and Sudafed, which provides temporary relief of nasal congestion), transdermal forumations (Estraderm, for the treatment of postmenopausal symptoms and prevention of osteoporosis, and Nicoderm, for nicotine withrawal), lipid formulations (Amphotec., for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis for patients with renal impairment), and pulmonary formulations (inhaled insulin for the treatment of diabetes, in late stage clinical trials in the US and Europe).
Our technology
Currently, drugs and vaccines for diseases of poverty are prepared as injectable solutions or standard oral pills.
Mend proposes a general formulation approach that can enhance drug absorption via oral delivery, provide efficient lung delivery via inhalation, and offer targeted drug and vaccine delivery via injection or inhalation.
Its whole cell dry powder preparation procedure promises to provide opportunities for improved delivery of vaccines by inhalation, oral, and injectable routes.
The 'porous particle' approach, published in the journal, science in 1997, and the 'nanopartical' approach, first published in the Proceesings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002, are being developed commercially by Alkernes (Cambridge) and for infectious disease treatment in the developing world within the laboratory of Dr. David Edwards (Harvard University) and collaborators in the USA, Europe, and Africa.
Mend seeks to translate promising drug and vaccine candidate opportunities related to infectious disease treatment from Harvard and collaborating institutions to South Africa and other developing world environments.
Mend is the only NGO exclusively dedicated to translating the science of drug delivery to new medical interventions in nations of poverty. Mend applies novel intellectual property from Harvard University and elsewhere for preparation and scale-up of dry forms of whole vaccines.
The Mend approach to delivering drugs and vaccines to humans for the treatment of infectious diseases permits efficient delivery to pulmonary mucosa and nonparticle targeting of agents to infected cells with the following two compelling therapeutic advantages:
For oral and injected delivery:
Nanoparticle targeting to reduce dose, improve absorption, extend duration
of action, and lower side effects with a scaleable manufacturing process.
For inhaled delivery:
Higher drug/vaccine delivery efficiency then can be achieved with standard
simple delivery systems and yet large dose potential like that achieved
presently only through nebulization.