Technology and Research
NanoMedex is based on patent protected rights to an innovative and proprietary formulation technology based on the utilization of nanotechnology for hydrophobic drug solubilization.
Nanotechnology of Microemulsions
Through expertise in microemulsion chemistry NanoMedex’s has patent protected rights to an innovative and proprietary formulation technology utilizing nanotechnology for hydrophobic drug solubilization. The formulation strategy provides a method to safely administer lipid (fat) soluble drugs to humans. NanoMedex’s microemulsion technology eliminates the additional components routinely used to assist lipid drugs in water solubility. The NanoMedex nanotechnology formulation strategy utilizes components that encapsulate the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API’s) into spheres (5-30 nm) so small they allow the drug to become randomly dispersed in water and act as if the drug has dissolved in water. These components are often the direct cause of a drug’s side effects. Eliminating these components thereby has the potential to increase the safety and efficacy of the drug. Although ideally suited for IV administered drugs, the technology can also be applied to a variety of routes of administration, including transdermal, intra-nasal and sublingual.
Innovation
The innovation of NanoMedex is to view the lipophilicity of propofol or other hydrophobic drugs as an advantage to be leveraged (not overcome as with conventional formulations) to construct engineered systems of microemulsion-based nanoparticles with a minimal of inactive ingredients (i.e., excipients). In this technology, the oil serves as a core of nanoparticles of (5-30 nm) diameter with a halo of ionic and nonionic surfactant in a bulk media of normal saline. In this case, these systems may be properly called microemulsions or nanoemulsions with the only difference that nanoemulsions will eventually phase separate over time whereas microemulsions are thermodynamically stable. These nanoparticles differ from other types of microemulsions prepared for possible medical use because the drug serves a dual role. First, the physical property of the drug to exist as an oil at room temperature allows the substance to serve as the core of the nanoparticle. In contrast,most microemulsions for medical use require an additional oil to carry the active drug. Second, the pharmacodynamic effects of an active pharmaceutical ingrediant renders the oil core to also be the pharmacologically active agent. As such, these microemulsion-based nanoparticles become elegant delivery vehicles with a reduced number of excipients. Beyond drugs that exist as oils, expansion of this technology to carry lipophilicd rugs that exist as solid materials at room temperature is possible. This type of technology has a number of potential advantages to overcome the liabilities of the state of the art to delivery lipophilic agents.
