Nasal delivery of biopharmaceuticals
F. Sonvico1,2
1Department of Food and Drug, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy; 2Interdepartmental Centre for Innovation in Health Products, Biopharmanet-TEC, Università di Parma, Italy.
Biopharmaceuticals have changed radically the clinical approach to several pathologies and are going to dominate the pharmaceutical market in the future. However, up to now the use of routes for delivery alternative to parenteral administration has somewhat limited their successful application to severe illnesses and hospital use. The application of safe and efficient route of delivery could open new opportunities and application to these potent drugs.
The airways epithelia have emerged as a safe and efficient absorption route for peptide and proteins and could represent the ideal solution for non-invasive biopharmaceutical delivery. Nasal route has been already exploited for delivery of peptides and some products have already been introduced on the market. This short course will take in consideration some of the aspects related to the design, development and characterization of biological drug formulations to be administered nasally with particular focus on some technological aspects related to drug delivery systems and platforms for this administration route. Some specific applications such as vaccination and nose-to-brain delivery will be emphasized, encompassing examples of advanced drug delivery systems such as nanomedicines.
Keywords: drug delivery, biopharmaceuticals, biological barriers, nasal administration, mucosal vaccination, nose-to-brain delivery
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Short Curriculum Vitae
Fabio Sonvico, born in Como (Italy), the 9th of December 1974, is Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Parma (Italy).
He is Vice Coordinator of the PhD Programme in "Pharmaceutical Sciences" (2021), member of the Program Committee of the Master (II level) in “Pharmaceutical and Regulatory Strategies Technology and Regulatory Affairs” (2015-2021). He has been also the Quality System Manager (2015-2020) of the course in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology and now member of the Department Quality Presidium. He is also in charge of Quality and Accreditation of the Interdepartemental Center for Health Products – Biopharmanet TEC (2015-2020), a laboratory part of the High Technology Network of the Emilia Romagna Region (Italy).
Current research interests include the design and development of innovative drug delivery systems for unmet clinical needs using biodegradable micro- and nanoparticles, with a special emphasis on the nasal and pulmonary administration.
From 2012 till 2014 he was Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney – UTS (Australia).
He serves since December 2016 as member of the Executive Committee of European Federation for Pharmaceutical Sciences (EUFEPS) and since he holds the role of Treasurer.
In 2020 he was part of the team of researchers of the University of Parma that proposed and now coordinates the H2020 RISE Project “Micro4Nano” that will start in October 2021.
He authored more than 100 papers on international scientific journals (H-index 27), 6 book chapters and 6 patents on novel dosage forms.
