Nasal drug development
Spray drying of vaccines for nasal delivery was also a theme, with several posters from Lonza on spray drying of nasal vaccines; John Chen of the Access to Advanced Health Institute (AAHI) presenting his poster “Accelerated Stability and Aerosol Performance Assessment for a Spray Dried Nasal COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate” during the Posters on the Podium session; and Reinhard Vehring of AAHI presenting a talk on “A Dry Powder Platform for Thermostable, Adjuvanted, Nasal Vaccines.”
Reflecting increasing interest in dry powder delivery to the nose, both Catalent and Hovione presented workshops that dealt with spray drying of nasal powders, with Hovione’s workshop devoted entirely to that topic. In addition to the AAHI posters, others specifically addressing nasal powders included a poster by the FDA’s Nicholas Holtgrewe on “Development of an In Vitro Method for In Vivo Prediction of Regional Deposition of Nasal Powders,” and posters from Lonza, Orexo, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of Texas.
Macquarie University’s Daniela Traini focused on using the nasal route for delivery of drugs to the brain, discussing formulation and devices before presenting a detailed look at the NARICE organ-on-a-chip bio nose-to-brain platform which allows modeling of delivery through both the extraneural and intraneural olfactory pathways. She also called attention to the need for ways to model pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in the nose.
In the exhibition, Proveris Scientific offered a new system for improving nasal spray testing efficiency, showing off its new Vereo NSx SWC (spray, weigh, and collect) automated dose uniformity testing system. The sustainability trend also extended to nasal delivery, with Aptar Pharma promoting its new Futurity line of highly recyclable nasal spray pumps.
