New drug formulations demand new answers. While Battelle has experience across a wide variety of drug delivery modes, we are focusing on three main areas to bring our innovative solutions to these drug delivery challenges.
Injectors
Injection is far and away the most common, and often the only, way that millions of patients can manage their chronic conditions with modern treatments. With new biologics continually coming on the market, Battelle is investing our diverse talent and expertise in developing practical, intuitive delivery solutions for the existing and emerging challenges that patients, and device customers, face.
One example of this is the Battelle-designed
controllable-force autoinjector (CFAI) technology. (See image on the right.) This system eliminates key drawbacks of conventional autoinjector models and provides faster, better delivery of viscous drugs. Additionally, the system’s unique soft needle insertion mechanism allows us to reduce insertion impact force, decrease delivery times or double the viscosity of fluids delivered, and improve reliability and consistency near the end of the stroke. These features address recurrent patient/user challenges with existing technology to lower the mental burden of the daily injection routine.
Patch Pumps
New biologics and better therapies are being introduced seemingly every day. These drugs are a lifeline for patients, but also are frustrating because dosing regimens may require a high volume to be injected slowly, over time. Typically, this is best accomplished in a clinical setting. But Battelle is exploring approaches and technologies to help bring high-volume delivery out of the clinic and allow patients the flexibility to administer for themselves, wherever is best for them.
For example, our ChemEngine technology drives injections at a tunable speed and is conformable. Deployed in a patch pump/on-body format, it could enable lower profile, smaller footprint devices for greater patient convenience and comfort as people receive their medications while going about their lives.
Inhalation Technology
Battelle’s design, development and testing of inhalation technologies gives us a head start to address the challenges of inhalation device development. Our broad experience – from user research and engineering to advanced materials and companion assays – drives us to develop better, safer, more effective device innovations, helping you engineer around patient constraints to deliver best-in-class inhalation delivery systems.
Take for example our work on an aerosol delivery system that could potentially transform the current standard for treating Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) in neonates. The system enables deep lung delivery of a highly viscous synthetic surfactant, potentially reducing or eliminating the need to intubate premature babies at risk for RDS.