Drug Delivery

Drug Delivery

Norwood's primary focus is the development of technologies that solve drug delivery problems.

There are a variety of drugs that work very well in the 'test tube', but because they are degraded by either the acids or enzymes in the stomach, or by the effect of the liver, that they have relatively little or no effect on the illness being treated. Norwood focuses on innovative technologies to address specific drug delivery problems.

Norwood's drug delivery technology development programs incorporate the use of nanotechnologies where applicable. The core of nanotechnology consists of systems in the size range of nanometers. Nanotechnology is the ultimate in engineering precision and control, and is operating at the scale of atoms and molecules. It ignores the boundaries between the disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology.

Norwood has three device-based drug delivery technologies which can be applied to a range of drug delivery problems:

• Laser Assisted Drug Delivery (LAD) - is designed to painlessly and temporarily alter the stratum corneum, or outer layer of skin, to potentially enable drugs to be effectively delivered transdermally avoiding the gastric side effects associated with oral drug administration. Our research has indicated that a wide range of drugs can potentially be better delivered via the use of Norwood's LAD technology. Clinical studies have shown that LAD ablation of the stratum corneum allows 4% lidocaine to more readily penetrate through the skin thus enhancing the delivery of dermal anaesthesia.

• Needle-free Drug Delivery - Norwood and its research partner Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a Needle-free injector system. The Needle-free injection device is designed for both human and veterinary applications. The drug is delivered through the skin using a small hand-held device. The system uses a novel, patented and extremely fast and powerful contractile fibre-activated pump that fires the drug at the skin with sufficient velocity to penetrate without the use of needles. The Norwood Needle-free injector system addresses all the parameters that have been identified as crucial for an ideal needle-free system. Key features of the Norwood device include safety, low cost, silent operation and control of dosage. Nanotechnology is being used in the development of skin impedance measurement, the control of delivery force and depth of delivery.

• Micro-needle Drug Delivery - Norwood and its research partner Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a Micro-needle based device that provides precise delivery of pharmaceuticals over time. Via micron-scale holes in the skin, drugs that are either too large or too hydrophobic to diffuse through intact skin may be delivered effectively. Because micro-needles penetrate only into the upper layers of skin (where the primary transport barrier resides), contact with nerves and capillaries is avoided, making the technology relatively painless. The Micro-needle device has the potential to improve administration of existing medications, enhance the development of new therapeutic compounds and ultimately be used in microprocessor-based systems for delivering drugs continuously or in response to body needs. Nanotechnology is being used in the development of the micro-needle array, control of the rate of delivery and the depth of delivery.