Many NCEs and repurposed drugs in early development are challenging to formulate in an adequately bioavailable form due to their poor solubility in water. To overcome these challenges, many formulation approaches have been developed by the drug delivery industry.
Among the most successful technologies have been particle size reduction to nanometer-size drug crystals with greater surface area for dissolution, production of amorphous solid dispersions for reducing the energy required for dissolution, nanoparticle systems for dissolving/dispersing a hydrophobic drug in either a lipid or polymer material, and the use of to dissolve a drug in an oil phase of an oil-in-water system. Ascendia was established to provide pharmaceutical companies with a contract research partner that can provide all of these technologies in order to efficiently determine which approach is most suitable for a given molecule. Drug Development & Delivery recently interviewed Jingjun (Jim) Huang, PhD, CEO and Founder of Ascendia, to discuss the company’s unique vision and strategy.