Initiatives propel nanomedicine’s growth
Nanomedicine, or medical applications of nanotechnology, is poised for several years of growth, according to Transparency Market Research. In a recent report,1 the market intelligence firm estimates the global nanomedicine market will expand at a CAGR of 12.3% through 2019. The firm divides the nanomedicine market into neurology, cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory, anti-infective, oncology, and other application areas.
Transparency Market Research cited several key companies in the nanomedicine field, ranging from traditional pharmaceutical companies including Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson to more specialized firms such as Nanosphere. Another company noting success in the field is Celator Pharmaceuticals which announced that VYXEOS (formerly referred to as CPX-351) was recognized with the Nanomedicine Award 2015—Best Nanomedicine Product or Deal Award. The award program is organized by the European Technology Platform for Nanomedicine (ETPN) together with the consortium Enabling Nanomedicine Translation. VYXEOS is now undergoing a study related to treatment of adult acute myeloid leukemia.
Source: Transparency Market Research
Nanomedicine also is being pursued by research organizations, including CEA-Leti, which specializes in nanotechnologies and their applications in wireless devices and systems, biology, healthcare, and photonics. Last summer, Leti announced the launch of the European Nano-Characterization Laboratory (EU-NCL), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Its objective is to pursue nanomedicine characterization for medical indications like cancer, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, or infections and make characterization capabilities accessible to organizations developing candidate nanomedicines prior to their submission to regulatory agencies to get the approval for clinical trials and marketing authorization.
At that time, Patrick Boisseau, head of business development for nanomedicine at CEA-Leti and chairman of the ETPN, said the infrastructure to support nanotechnology-based innovation in healthcare is lacking. “Nanocharacterization is the first bottleneck encountered by companies developing nanotherapeutics,” he said. “The EU-NCL project is of most importance for the nanomedicine community as it will contribute to the competiveness of nanomedicine products and tools and facilitate regulation in Europe.”
In October, Boisseau was reelected chairman of ETPN and said nanomedicine in Europe is rapidly progressing from a primarily academic-research-oriented and fragmented field to a multinational program sharply focused on bringing the benefits of nanomedicine to all Europeans.
“The past three years were a turning point from a time when EC investment was mostly on academic research toward a new era in which funding supports the translation of nanomedicine from lab proofs-of-concept to products in clinical trials and getting innovative medicines to market,” he said. “On top of that change, we also created ETPN international cooperation projects, especially with the United States.”
EU-NCL is partnered with the Nanotechnology Characterization Lab of the National Cancer Institute in the United States to get faster international harmonization of analytical protocols.
Boisseau said that, among other goals, the association’s programs will help companies receive clinical validation for their products and get access to target markets.
Research is proceeding on other fronts as well. In September, Queen’s University Belfast announced2 that a U.S.-Ireland nanomedicine partnership has been awarded £2.9 million to develop new treatments for pancreatic cancer.
The grant has been awarded under the U.S.-Ireland Research and Development Partnership Program and will bring together experts in drug delivery and cancer research at Queen’s, Dublin City University, and the University at Buffalo. The five-year program will focus on the development on delivering drugs directly to cancer sites to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatments.
In addition, researchers at Georgia State University and other institutions have investigated the use of nanoparticles to serve as a vaccination against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infects the lungs and breathing passages. RSV usually results in mild, cold-like symptoms that subside in a week or two, but RSV can be more serious for infants and older adults.
The researchers investigated the use of a combination of fusion and glycoprotein (FG) virus-like nanoparticles expressing RSV glycoproteins as an RSV vaccine candidate, performing experiments on mice to investigate the role of alveolar macrophages (AMs) in long-term protection. In a paper describing their work, the researchers concluded, “The results in this study suggest that FG nanoparticle vaccination induces long-term protection against RSV and that AMs play a role in the RSV protection by modulating eosinophilia, mucus production, inflammatory cytokines, and T-cell infiltration.”3
In a press release, Dr. Sang-Moo Kang, a professor at the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University and coauthor of the paper, said, “Recombinant engineered nanoparticle vaccines might be developed to prevent highly contagious respiratory pathogens such as RSV, as reported in this study.”
Perhaps after RSV, nanomedicines can tackle the common cold.
References
- “Global Nanomedicine Market: Increased Research Collaborations to Drive Market in Asia Pacific at 14.6% CAGR,” Transparency Market Research, Oct. 16, 2015.
- “Transatlantic Partnership to Develop New Treatments for Pancreatic Cancer,” Newswise, Sept. 14, 2015.
- Lee, Young-Tae, et al., “Respiratory syncytial virus-like nanoparticle vaccination induces long-term protection without pulmonary disease by modulating cytokines and T-cells partially through alveolar macrophages,” International Journal of Nanomedicine,” July 14, 2015.