CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Enzian Pharmaceutics said it has demonstrated that its expandable fibrous oral dosage forms can significantly improve the bioavailability of sparingly water-soluble drugs by prolonging gastric residence time and enabling steady drug release into the bloodstream.
Many oral therapies that rely on poorly soluble compounds suffer from limited effectiveness because only a small fraction of the drug dissolves and is absorbed before conventional tablets or capsules pass through the stomach. As a result, overall bioavailability remains low, reducing therapeutic impact.
To address this challenge, Enzian has developed a novel dosage form made of orderly arranged, drug-bearing fibers. After ingestion, the fibrous tablet absorbs water, expands, and forms a gel-like structure that remains in the stomach for several hours. During this time, the structure steadily releases the drug, extending the absorption window.
The approach was validated in animal studies using the sparingly soluble leukemia drug nilotinib. In trials conducted in dogs, the Enzian dosage form remained in the stomach for approximately six hours and achieved three times greater bioavailability compared with the currently marketed particle-filled capsule formulation. The findings were published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Pharmaceutics.
According to Dr. Aron Blaesi, Enzian’s founder and CEO, approximately 40 percent of approved orally delivered drugs have compromised efficacy due to poor bioavailability. He said the company’s technology could enhance the effectiveness of many existing therapies, while also opening new opportunities for drugs that were previously abandoned.
“I am particularly thinking about salvaging drugs that have never made it to market because of poor bioavailability,” he said. “By increasing the quantity of drug delivered, we might make many of them viable for oral therapy. This might enable bringing new drugs and new therapies to market that have so far been neglected, but with the right delivery technology could be far superior to the state of the art.”
Enzian Pharmaceutics is now validating its fibrous gastroretentive dosage form in a small study involving healthy human volunteers.
