SEQENS launches a new offer of an Early Clinical Formulation service for active pharmaceutical ingredients

SEQENS, an company involved in the development and manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and functional excipients (polymers and lipids), recently launched a new offer of an Early Clinical Formulation service, providing innovative drug delivery solutions for oral forms in early-stage drug development.

Oral drug formulations remain the main administration form in the pharmaceutical industry due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of use for the patients compared to other forms which either require hospitalization (intravenous), syringe injection (e.g. intradermal) or complex development (e.g. transdermal patch, sublingual, etc).

Despite the increase in the number of new drugs, 90% of new APIs tend to be poorly water soluble or to exhibit a poor permeability through biological membranes, leading to limited bioavailability. Significant development is required to render them orally bioavailable. “This trend is rising as molecules are more and more complex,” explains Christophe Eychenne-Baron, R&D director of SEQENS. “Indeed, there is a trend towards an increasing average molecular weight of small molecules drug candidates”. Consequently, formulation needs to be more sophisticated and adapted to the API.

Combining its expertise in active pharmaceutical ingredients, process development and manufacturing, with a state-of-the art analytical and solid state platform, and a large catalog of custom polymers (controlled release) and lipids for drug delivery (lipid nanoparticles or mRNA encapsulation), SEQENS has invested into complementary capabilities to further integrate its offer towards pharma and biotech companies. This investment allows SEQENS to be able to deliver comprehensive solutions addressing difficult-to-formulate APIs, being either 'brick dusts' or 'grease balls'.

“With this new offer, SEQENS provides an integrated solution to translate a New Chemical Entity from Medicinal Chemistry into a First In Human administrable oral form for Phase I investigational clinical unit,” says Gautier Decock, CRDO managing director.

This new service will also enable SEQENS to overcome technical barriers which prevented commercially API’s of being developed as oral forms.

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