Jean Cuine's Project

Towards the development of lipid-based formulations designed for the oral administration of poorly water-soluble drugs.

For the last decades, the number of poorly water-soluble drugs in development has been increasing due to the evolution of techniques including combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening during drug discovery. Poorly water-soluble drugs however, generally have low and variable oral bioavailability due to slow dissolution in the gastrointestinal tract. In order to enhance the oral bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs, the use of lipid-based formulations has been increasingly employed. However, despite the proven utility of lipid-based formulations to enhance bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs, their development is still largely empirical and relatively few lipid-based pharmaceutical products have been marketed to this point. In large part that reticence to develop lipid-based formulations stands from the fact that the exact mechanisms responsible for bioavailability enhancement have not been clearly identified. The aim of this project is to develop in vitro methodologies to assist in the development of lipid-based formulations and to identify the formulation parameters responsible for good in vivo performance. This project is supported by Capsugel, a Pfizer corporation.