NANO SILICON DRUG DELIVERY PLATFORM MARKET ANALYSIS

Safe and effective drug delivery is a major challenge against the pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Companies formulate their drugs in various dosage forms such as capsules, powders, inhalers, liquid, drops, tablets, transdermal patches, depot injection, and gels to address the drug delivery challenges in different conditions. Moreover, advancement in research has enabled controlled and sustained release of drugs to decrease the dosage and provide long term effect of the drug. Furthermore, new technologies such as nanotechnology and antibody-drug conjugate are being introduced to minimize cost and increase bioavailability. In all, there is all-together a new wave of innovation in life science sector that delivers medicines at the targeted site in right dose.

Nanotechnology-based platforms are gaining significant importance in research and product development due to the enormous benefits they offer in terms of drug stability, bioavailability, dosage, and shelf-life.  Various types of nano-carriers or nanoparticles such as liposomes, magnetic particle, dendrimers, silver nanoparticle, silica nanoparticle, and polymeric micelles, carbon nanoparticles and drug-conjugate nanoparticles are used in different industries to cater the exact need or product.

SiSafe Nano-silicon Drug Delivery Platform                                                                                

SiSaf’s new drug delivery technology called SiSafe is a patented elemental nano-silicon porous structure with a massive surface area. A higher surface area provides high drug-loading capacity and thus significant increase in bioavailability of even the most hydrophobic compounds. So, a less soluble drug that needs to be injected directly in the bloodstream can have enhanced solubility through SiSafe nano-silicon platform. Molecules are incorporated within the nanopores, thus stabilizing the instable molecules and increasing the bioavailability of the drug. SiSafe is a biodegradable technology which enables customizing the rate of onset and release by altering the physical factors of the carriers such as linkage method, porosity, particle size, and pore width.

Potential Applications

SiSafe will be of significant use to pharmaceutical, animal health, biotech and cosmeceutical companies to formulate and package drugs that are difficult to formulate otherwise. Companies finding better solutions for their existing drugs can incorporate this technology to improve their product quality. Also, new drugs used for chronic diseases can be delivered at a low dose to the target sites with the nano-silicon drug delivery platform.

This new nanotechnology-based drug delivery platform offers competitive advantages such as improved safety, efficacy, controlled release and desired time of onset of drug release. After years of research and development, and extensive capital investment, SiSafe nano-silicon drug delivery platform is ready for commercialization. SiSaf is looking to partner with drug developers who desire to improve their formulation with controlled releases and lower doses. SiSaf received a funding of USD 4.9 million from Singapore’s Vickers Venture Partners and Exen Capital recently in November 2016. This partnership is anticipated to be of great aid for SiSaf to reach more markets globally.

Nano-silicon Drug Delivery Platform to enable Low Cost Drug Delivery

Research for the use of nano-silicon particles in targeted tumor therapy is under progress. The study being conducted by various organizations globally including Tel Aviv University, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard Medical School are of the opinion that nano-silicon particles could deliver drugs over a long period of time, may be for weeks or even months. Such advancement in drug delivery technologies will revolutionize the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical drug industry by offering targeted drug therapies at a low cost.

Key Developments

Several institutes are focused on R&D related to nano-silicon drug delivery approaches. For instance, in August 2019, researchers from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai conducted a clinical trial for gold-silica nanoparticles-based photothermal cancer therapy.

Similarly, in June 2019, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology reported development of silica spheres of around 200 nanometers in size that can be used for drug delivery to eliminate malignant cells only in certain parts of the body, in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

In March 2018, researchers from the University of South Australia reported the use of an electrospun composite of poly(ε-caprolactone) fibers and porous silicon nanoparticles as an effective system for the tunable delivery of camptothecin, a topoisomerase inhibitor linked to a cyclodextrin-based polymer to form the investigational anti-cancer drug CRLX101.