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Purdue University spinout Biokorf is developing a new way to manufacture pharmaceuticals, attempting to personalize drug dosage and delivery methods.
It’s certainly an interesting endeavor in this era of precision medicine. Chief Scientific Officer Rodolfo Pinal put the use-case for his technology quite simply:
“Imagine a world where everyone who needs eyeglasses had to wear the same prescription, even if their power’s different,” he said. “That’s how many drug doses still are these days.”
This dosing system’s endured for more than 60 years – but given today’s advances in pharmacogenomics, there’s no reason to stick with antiquated drug delivery protocol, Pinal said.
Biokorf’s drugs customize drugs to individual completely – be it size of pill, precise dosing and drug release characteristics that the drug prescribes for the patient.
This sounds like a reimbursement nightmare – which is why Biokorf’s beginning with medications used in hormone replacement therapy. Such patients tend to pay out of pocket, and in these cases the precise level of medication delivered is critical for efficacy, Pinal says.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The company’s formulated a number of components that can be assembled to spin out the optimal dosage. Purdue, which licensed the technology to Biokorf through its tech transfer office, developed a video on how it works:
It’s meant to be used by compounding pharmacists, in lieu of the dosage levels made en masse by pharmaceutical companies. In essence, its platform – called 3D Integrated Pharmaceuticals – is meant to give these pharmacists prefabricated components that can be assembled into different dosage levels.
These come in the form of drug-filled discs with small portions of the drug, that can then be loaded into capsules at the compounding pharmacies.
The company’s currently building prototype products for HRT. It’s so far received funding from Purdue and is part of the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps. It’s currently looking for external funding.
