Lab of Innovative Formulation for Oral Delivery – LIFOD

The purpose of the LIFOD joint laboratory is to develop a close and long-term collaboration in the field of solid oral dosage forms, with the aim of synergizing the know-how of academic and industrial partners to offer multidisciplinary innovations in pharmaceutical engineering. An ambitious research and innovation roadmap is proposed to meet the needs of industry and the growing market demand for innovative, effective and eco-responsible solutions to unmet therapeutic needs in the field of oral dosage forms. LIFOD's goal is to design and develop dosage forms that improve the oral bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs and biologicals. The low bioavailability of poorly soluble active ingredients and biologically active ingredients represents a major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of the LIFOD joint laboratory is to design and develop galenic forms in response to these problems. The limitations of oral administration are often linked to the low aqueous solubility of active substances and/or their low intestinal permeability, and their potential instability in the digestive environment. Some active substances are also subject to efflux by P-glycoprotein (P-gp), which limits their permeability, while others undergo extensive metabolism in the first-pass liver. All these phenomena result in a reduction in oral bioavailability. LIFOD's mission will be to provide galenic solutions to limit or even totally inhibit, through formulation choices, one or other of the phenomena that reduce bioavailability. Another focus will be on developing stable galenic forms that can be easily administered orally by transforming nanodispersions into dry forms. Finally, a platform for screening and studying the permeability of molecules and formulations will be set up, based on an experimental and theoretical approach, in order to provide predictive numerical models to limit experimentation and development times.
LIFOD combines the expertise of the LAGEPP UMR CNRS 5007 laboratory in formulation and pharmaceutical engineering with that of SKYEPHARMA, a CDMO specialized in the development and industrial manufacture of oral drug products. The collaboration between the two partners has already led to encouraging preliminary results, especially the development of lipid nanoparticles encapsulating a an anticancer drug, which showed an improvement of the oral bioavailability in vivo.
The scientific programme will be structured along three main lines: i/ colloidal forms to improve the crossing of biological barriers for APIs with low oral bioavailability (nanoencapsulation, targeting, transformation into solid form, mucoadhesion, etc.); ii/ formulation of biomolecules for oral administration (nanoencapsulation, nanoemulsion, self-emulsifying systems, absorption promoters, etc.); iii/ platform for screening and in vitro/ex vivo/in silico study of permeability. The challenges in each of these areas have been identified at different levels: formulation challenges (choice of biocompatible and biodegradable excipients, biosourced excipients, stability of galenic forms, vectorisation, etc.); process challenges (limiting the use of solvents and energy, solidification, control, etc.); and therapeutic challenges (incorporation of sufficient doses of API, therapeutic targeting by the oral route, vitro/vivo correlation, etc.). In the medium to long term, each of these areas will enable us to bring to market innovative galenic solutions that enhance the therapeutic potential of many active ingredients.