Celanese has been working on this technology for the last 20 years and has expanded from the women’s health space into oncology, CNS, and endocrinology. Furthermore, the technology is compatible with small molecules, peptides, oligonucleotides, and antibodies. Alongside, being compatible with many compounds, one can use different configurations which allows scientists to dictate whether drug release is slow or rapid.
Hydrophilic drugs may release too fast, so this is controlled using rate-controlling membranes to slow and optimise delivery. Schmid briefly introduced an example where lysozyme was added to the standard ethylene vinyl acetate and within one or two days the drug was eluted. However, when a membrane was applied this played a crucial role in optimising drug release.
A key challenge with cancer treatment is toxicity, which damages healthy cells and limits therapeutic outcomes. One potential solution to this is moving from intravenous delivery to localised treatment.
Regarding applications of this technology in cancer and peptide therapy, Schmid suggested that moving from systemic monoclonal antibody infusion to localised intratumoral implants would reduce side effects and drug load. To corroborate the feasibility of this she performed stability tests with trastuzumab, a monoclonal antibody, which showed that antibodies survive extrusion processes and remain stable for months.
Goserelin is not only used as a cancer treatment but also as an adjuvant treatment. The main obstacle associated with Goserelin is adherence; if patient adherence is low, the risk of reoccurrence is very high. So, a long-acting implant reduces dosing frequency and increases adherence. Furthermore, Goserelin stays stable over six months with the implant. Schmid also gave examples of this technology at play in ophthalmology and RNA therapeutics.
In a nutshell, VitalDose is highly tuneable, versatile, and suitable for various therapeutic areas meaning users can customise it to their needs. Lastly, in-house lab capabilities include formulation development, prototyping, and release testing.
