Research Area

Since last few decades, an evolution in drug delivery systems has been prominent trend in pharmaceutical research. Increasing clinical development costs, declining drug-discovery process, low clinical success rates, complexity of development cycle and impact of newer diseases like Covid-19 on economy and execution are negatively influencing the R & D pipeline. The search for novel, new or innovative drug delivery approaches is a rapidly increasing in the field. All the big pharma companies are already diverting and adapting their R & D strategy by selecting multifunctional therapeutic agents, innovating new target oriented drug delivery systems, repurposing generic drugs, and investing in robust drug product and intellectual property (IP) strategy. To increase R&D efficiencies, is it very important to limit the portfolio risk and related cost. It is equally important to increase innovation potential internally and an openness to collaborative research externally with competent partners.
The emergence of Nano and micro particle based drug delivery platforms greatly impacted value of R & D of drug pipeline, Nano and micro particle based drug delivery platforms offer several technical and strategic solution to above challenges. Nano and microparticle platforms not only offer unique chemical/physical properties to therapeutic drug but they also improve product performance thereby increasing the profitability and market sustainability.

nanopharmaceuticals
Pediatric suppositories The rectal route is a good alternative to the oral route for pediatric patients. New advances like use of mucoadhesive gels, sustained release polymers and use of microparticles enhances the drug effect. The overall cost of product manufacturing and life cycle management is very low (Shegokar et.al. – paracetamol suppositories) Lipospheres Lipospheres are lipid micro particles in size range of 0.2 to 100 µm, composed of solid hydrophobic fat matrix in which the bioactive compound are dissolved or dispersed. Lipospheres offers advantage of good physical stability, low cost of ingredients and ease of preparation and scale up (Shegokar et.al. – stavudine Lipospheres) Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) SLNs are modified to the nano-structured lipid carriers (NLCs) by adapting the matrix by addition of liquid lipid . The enhanced matrix structure offers increased loading, minimal drug leakage and long terms stability. Shegokar et.al. reports NLCs for various antioxidants
      Microbicides Microbicides are dosage forms which contains drugs that prevent vaginal and/or rectal transmission of HIV and/or sexually transmitted infections. Stavudine microbicidal gels proved to have optimal antimicrobial, spermicidal and anti-HIV activity (Shegokar et.al. – stavudine microbicidal gels) Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) The lipid nanoparticles were developed as alternative to traditional carriers such as polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes. They are being explored for dermal, mucosal, oral, intravenous/ parenteral, pulmonary and ocular route by many research group across the world. Large scale production and splenic targeting of surface modified SLNs is reported by Shegokar et.al.  
Nanocrystals Poor solubility of new drugs and their related low oral bioavailability and general delivery problems are becoming a major challenge. Nanocrystals being a kind of “universal” formulation approach for these molecules are reviewed in many papers by Shegokar et.al., regarding the industrial feasibility, production processes (bottom-up and top-down technologies), regulatory aspects, nanotoxicology and drug targeting Nano-micro emulsions Nano or microemulsion is a colloidal dispersion which encapsulates both hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs to improve the bioavailability. Improved stability, rapid digestibility, controlled release, and high capability of enhancing drugs’ bioavailability. Furthermore, nanoemulsions can be fabricated with great flexibility to deliver different drug moieties with different characteristics (Shegokar et.al.). Metal Nanoparticles SLNs are modified to the nano-structured lipid carriers (NLCs) by adapting the matrix by addition of liquid lipid. The enhanced matrix structure offers increased loading, minimal drug leakage and long terms stability. Shegokar et.al. reports NLCs for various antioxidants
      Polymeric nanoparticles Polymeric nanoparticles are sub-micron (1 to 1000 nm) colloidal particles which are composed of one or multiple polymers. The particle core encapsulates drug in inner matrix or is adsorbed partially on the surface of particle. Shegokar et.al. researched polymeric particles for industrial use. Polymeric lipid complexs (PLHs) These multifunctional, hybrid architectures possess better attributes for drug delivery such as high loading capacity, improved stability, ease of anchoring ligands, surface manipulation, tuneable drug release, loading multiple therapeutics, and excellent in vivo performance. Nanostructures comprised of hybrid materials are poised to emerge as a new avenue in the delivery of various therapeutics including complex diseases like cancer. Polymer–lipid hybrid (PLH) nanostructures can be of various types such as polymer core–lipid shell, core–shell-type hollow lipid–polymer nanoparticulates, monolithic lipid–polymer hybrid nanoparticulates, and polymer-caged liposomes (Shegokar et.al.).