Aphios Receives Patent for SuperFluids CFL Drug Delivery Process

The US Patent Office has granted Aphios Corp. (Woburn, MA) Patent No. 5,776,486, titled "Method and Apparatus for Making Liposomes containing Hydrophobic Drugs." The patent and certain products developed utilizing this technology are available for licensing.

In Aphios' now-patented process, hydrophobic drugs and liposomal raw materials are first dissolved in supercritical, critical, or near-critical fluids with or without cosolvents (SuperFluids), which are then utilized to form small, uniform liposomes with a high encapsulation efficiency. SuperFluids are gases that, when compressed, exhibit enhanced solvation, penetration, expansion, and disruption properties. These fluids are reverse-engineered to form stable biocompatible aqueous formulations of difficult-to-formulate anti-cancer and antiviral drugs such as paclitaxel and camptothecin in Aphios' SuperFluids CFL (critical fluid liposomal) process.

SuperFluids CLF can be used to manufacture improved drug delivery formulations of hydrophobic drugs such as cyclosporin, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, teniposide, micnazole, and amphotericin in a sterile and scalable manner. SuperFluids CLF can also be utilized for the nanoencapsulation of hydrophilic drugs and proteins.

Research leading to the development of this technology was partially funded by Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Cancer Institute.

Aphios Corporation is a privately held research and development company.

For more information: Aphios Corp., 3-E Gill St., Woburn, MA 01801. Tel: 617-932-6933. Fax: 617-932-6865.