Polymer excipients for the pharmaceutical industry

NGP PolymersExternal linkdevelops novel pharmaceutical polymers for improved drug formulations

Active ingredients can do their job particularly well if they get to the right place in the body at the right time. To ensure this, the active ingredients are formulated with excipients to form highly efficient drugs. However, the selection of available polymeric excipients is limited. To expand this spectrum, Next Generation Pharma Polymers (NGP Polymers for short) develops, produces and markets novel polymer excipients for various applications in the pharmaceutical industry. Ulrich S. Schubert, co-founder of the Jena start-up, explains the background and goals of the company.

CHEManager: Mr. Schubert, how did the idea for the start-up come about and what was the motivation behind it?

Ulrich S. Schubert: As a professor of organic and macromolecular chemistry, I have long been involved with the production and characterization of polymeric materials for pharmaceutical/medical applications, in particular with poly(2-oxazoline)s (POx) as an alternative to the widespread polyethylene glycol ( PEG). At the moment there are only two handfuls of approved excipient polymers for the formulation of active ingredients, but they are not suitable for all active ingredients, so that a large number of promising active ingredients remain on the shelf due to the lack of a 'protective shell'. Formulations that are already in use still have disadvantages, such as the use of PEG, against which many people have antibodies, or insufficient mRNA loading to treat more complex diseases such as cancer or genetic defects. We want to tackle these challenges with NGP Polymers and thus open up the potential of polymeric auxiliaries.

Read the whole interview here.External link