A Medical Device Daily

DOR BioPharma (Princeton, New Jersey), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, said that it has received a European patent which addresses its Lipid Polymer Micelle (LPM) technology for the improved oral delivery of drugs. The issued European patent, EP 1460992, titled "Stabilized Reverse Micelle Compositions and Uses Thereof" covers lipid structures (reverse micelles) that promote the intestinal absorption of peptides and other sensitive drugs that cannot otherwise be given orally.

The LPM technology is a platform technology that uses reverse micelles stabilized by polymers. Reverse micelles are generally described as a lipid system and are similar to water-in-oil emulsions in that the hydrophilic lipid head groups are directed towards the micelle core, with the hydrophobic tails imbedded in the oil phase. This results in a drug-delivery system that is a thermodynamically stable clear dispersion of the water-soluble drug in the lipid phase. But unlike water-in-oil systems, stabilized reverse micelles do not depend on the presence of other surfactants and are thermodynamically stable. In the LPM system, water-soluble drugs are contained in the water space in the core of the micelles and are protected against degradation.

"The issuance of the European patent for LPM demonstrates the novelty of this drug delivery system and the preclinical results clearly show that it is a competitive system for oral delivery of drugs, especially those biotechnology products derived from synthetic peptide chemistry or recombinant DNA," said Christopher Schaber, PhD, DOR president/CEO. "We also believe that the LPM system will be applicable to a large number of water-soluble drugs including peptides that are poorly permeable, resulting in increased patient compliance and safety."