Global integrated pharmaceutical manufacturer, Penn Pharma, has launched Solusolve – a specialist formulation development service to increase the bioavailability of ‘difficult’ compounds.

Global sales and marketing director at Penn Pharma, Paul Wituschek, said:

"The majority of medicines being developed for human use are for oral administration. However, an increasing number, in fact almost half, of all new compounds coming through the development pipelines are BCS Class II drugs. This means that they are highly permeable through biological membranes but are poorly water soluble. And it is this limited water solubility that poses drug absorption problems in the patient’s gastrointestinal tract. The prime objective of our new formulation service is to improve water-solubility to maximise oral bioavailability of these drugs for our clients."

Solusolve offers a number of techniques for increasing water-solubility of lipophilic compounds. These include salt selection, particle reduction, use of carriers such as solution formulations and self-emulsifying drug delivery systems, melt extrusion and granulation and functional ‘bioavailability enhancer’ excipients such as Gelucire and Vitamin E TPGS. This new specialist formulation offering, encompassed into Penn’s broad formulation capability is the latest addition to Penn Pharma’s suite of integrated services for clients which include analytical services, clinical trials supply and clinical / commercial manufacturing.

Paul Wituschek concludes:

"While there will continue to be major challenges presented to formulation scientists in overcoming some of the absorption barriers associated with many new drug compounds being developed, at Penn Pharma, we are working hard to ensure that we have a growing armoury of tools and techniques at our disposal to help our clients deal with these ‘difficult’ compounds as part of our new Solusolve service."

For more information about Solusolve visit www.pennpharm.com or contact Penn Pharma, 01495 711222 or (215) 693-6269 (U.S. & Canada only).