Special Feature, from page 63 to 71

Hovione: Particle Engineering for Small & Large Molecules

Hovione has strategically decided to explore niche areas that are difficult to tackle and can benefit from its expertise in particle engineering. Examples include the oral delivery of Amorphous Spray Dried Dispersions and the manufacturing of dry powders for inhalation. Historically, Hovione has mainly focused on small molecules and their pre-formulation, by means of particle engineering, to overcome solubility limitations or to render them suitable for inhalation. In recent years, Hovione has experienced some challenges with large-molecule particle engineering, but intends to increase its activity in this area. “The delivery of large molecules is leading us to novel areas of aseptic particle engineering that we will be introducing in our portfolio,” says Teresa Alves, PhD, Senior Director, Science & Technology, Hovione. Dr. Alves adds that there are opportunities to apply lessons learned with small molecules to large molecules. “We see a trend in the increased delivery of biologics by inhalation, particularly dry powder inhalation, including the delivery of peptides, proteins, hormones, DNA, RNA, etc. We are also actively working to process low bioburden biologics to solve difficulties that our clients experience in limited shelf life, high viscosity, and new areas of administration.”

Márcio Temtem, PhD, Site Manager, R&D services, Hovione, explains how the company’s sponsors have benefitted from Hovione’s experience in spray drying. “Spray drying scale up runs with minimum work at scale,” he says. “This is what we call Development by Design. By relying on stasticial and mechanistic models, databases, and scientific know-how, we can save API and time required for CMC process development. We have successfully applied these tools to biologic molecules, namley proteins, antibodies, and fragments of antibodies, and some of these solutions have evolved to commercial manufacturing.”

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