AdoGel®
Drug delivery platform for the sustained release of therapeutic agents
Drugs for long-term therapy typically need frequent administrations which can be a burden to patients and a barrier to effective therapy. It can affect patient compliance, increase the risk of failure due to inconsistent use, and lead to dose variability beyond the therapeutic window.
Therefore, research and development of long-acting drug delivery formulations have experienced a boost over the past decades with the successful commercialization of several products1. They can provide several advantages over more traditional formulations. They enable slow drug release after administrating a single dose over the course days, weeks months and even years and can maintain a steady pharmacokinetics profile. Long-acting delivery formulations can substantially decrease injection frequency and increase drug efficacy and safety by maintaining drug levels in the body at optimal concentrations.
In this context, it is on hydrogel-based formulations that Adocia has worked to establish AdoGel®, an injectable with in-situ gel formation. Leveraging its experience with the AdoShell technology, AdoGel® is a biomaterial extremely safe and well tolerated. Due to its high-water content, AdoGel® is a versatile platform, enabling the sustained-release of various therapeutic agents, ranging from small molecules (hormones, corticosteroids, anti-cancer drugs…) to fragile protein and peptide-based products (monoclonal antibodies, GLP-1, parathyroid hormone…). The primary advantage of AdoGel® is an almost constant rate of release, without initial burst.
Preclinical proof of concept is currently underway with levonorgestrel (LNG) and semaglutide. The preliminary results validate the absence of initial burst and the zero-order kinetics over the period.
Intended for local or systemic administration, this new technology platform opens up numerous applications for LAI formulations. Adocia’s business model is to propose this technology platform to partners for application to their proprietary molecules.
1 Clinical translation of long-acting drug delivery formulations. Nature Rev Mater. 2022.