Drug delivery

A gastric-resident method of delivering multiple antiretroviral (ART) agents together could treat HIV for prolonged periods with a single administration. The gastric-resident dosage form comprises six rigid arms allowing for the delivery of up to six different drugs, joined at an elastomeric core that allows the arms to fold into a capsule shell; upon dissolution of the shell in the stomach, the core unfolds to allow prolonged gastric residence. In a pig model of HIV, gastric-resident-mediated delivery of the three ARTs -- Tivicay dolutegravir, Edurant rilpivirine and cabotegravir -- produced a mean peak concentration of Tivicay six hours post-dose that was comparable to the immediate-release formulation of Tivicay; concentrations comparable to the C_max for Edurant for the seven days of the study; and sustained concentrations of 200-500 ng/mL for cabotegravir for up to a week post-dose. Next steps in collaboration with Lyndra Inc. include planning clinical testing of gastric-resident formulations of undisclosed ART combinations.

ViiV Healthcare Ltd. markets Tivicay, an HIV integrase inhibitor, to treat HIV-1 infection in combination with other antiretroviral agents and has cabotegravir, a long-acting parenteral integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI), in Phase III testing for maintenance treatment of HIV-1 infection. ...