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Drug delivery models and medical devices design

Country of Origin: Italy
Reference Number: TOIT20160824001
Publication Date: 24 August 2016

Summary

An Italian research center developed a novel mathematical model of drug release from a polymeric platform, or with use of nanoparticles as cargo vehicle, able to simulate and predict concentration profiles, drug mass and the drug fraction retained in the tissue along elution. Applications are in several medical fields as cardiovascular drug-eluting stents and transdermal patches. Research and technical cooperation agreements are offered to companies and academic partners.

Description

The Italian public research Center is the largest Italian laboratory of applied mathematics. Its mission is to develop highly advanced mathematical, statistical and computational methods in order to solve, in an interdisciplinary context, problems of high relevance for society and industry. The research activities consist in several topics, which reflect equilibrium between the development of advanced mathematical models, methods, their applications and computational aspects. The scientific staff consists of about 70 researchers: a group of them have extensive know-how and international expertise in mathematical modelling and simulation, in biomathematics and biological fluid dynamics, drug delivery devices and diffusion based processes.

The model aims at developing novel transdermal drug delivery systems capable to demonstrate, through setting up of experimental campaign, the feasibility of a more effective release technology on transdermal patches allowing for a controllable and tunable delivery of doses and for a more reliable targeting of drugs. This transdermal patch can be possibly equipped with portable electronic sensors able to measure critical variables and transfer data to medical center processing unit for remote analysis.  

These tools will enable healthcare professionals to design the most appropriate control parameters of therapy on the basis of patient characteristics. Feedback from data, measuring the effective amount of drug released through skin, will allow early prediction of effects and possibly decide appropriate corrections.

The main applications are in cardiovascular drug-eluting stents, orthopaedic implants, therapeutic contact lenses and transdermal patches, or in electrically assisted drug release as in iontophoresis. The research center envisages research and technical cooperation agreements with clinics, pharmaceutical companies and other medical professionals, in order to transfer know-how and technical skills.

Research agreements will be expected to implement joint researches or to apply jointly to call for proposals.

Advantages and Innovations

The current methodology, based on a mathematical modelling and numerical simulations, allows low-cost and repeatable experiments and acts as a supporting tool in implants design to evaluate the effectiveness of a drug therapy.

The proposed models are expected to pave the way to cost-effective, easy-to-use, self-administered technological solution able to enhance the quality of life of patients requiring the constant delivery of optimised therapeutic drugs and reducing at the same time hospitalisation costs but maintaining the same level of care accuracy and patient control. The models can be easily adapted to a number of applicative biomedical fields.

Stage Of Development

Concept stage

Requested partner

The research center is looking for research and technical cooperation agreements with pharmaceutical companies, interested to design advanced drug delivery devices.  

For these agreements, the center transfers know-how and offers technical skills in modelling and simulations as well as the related software required to develop technology.

The center is open to transfer its modelling know-how to other applicative and technological fields on request of specific companies/R&D entities/Universities. (e.g. in the fields of materials science, electronics and IT engineering). 

Research cooperation agreements are expected with academic partners in order to establish a scientific collaboration and eventually partnership to apply to EU call for proposals.