This presentation will focus on new computational and experimental methods to predict and understand intestinal drug absorption from advanced drug delivery systems. Since a majority of the discovered drug candidates are problematic to deliver to the site of action, advanced drug delivery systems are needed. In the small molecular space (Mw<500 Da) a large fraction is poorly soluble in water, and compounds having aqueous solubility less than that of marble are not uncommon. In the new modality space, the delivery problem is related to poor permeability across cell membranes. For both categories, extensive formulation efforts are demanded to bring them into the clinic. The molecular reasons behind the poor solubility (typically simplified into solid-state effects versus solvation effects) may guide the selection of suitable formulation strategies, whereas size, polarity and hydrogen bond patterns are crucial determinants for poor permeability. In this talk, the speaker will describe how methods commonly used in computational chemistry and computational (cell) biology (e.g. Molecular Dynamics simulations and Computational Fluid Dynamics) are useful tools for prediction of formulation strategies and formulation performance of poorly solubles and poorly permeables. New experimental methods based on dissolution and permeation tools that have recently been developed to better mimic the gastrointestinal tract will then be presented. These new tools include the development of dissolution/digestion/permeation tools that mimic the gastrointestinal processing and absorption in one assay. The talk hence will summarize some of the new techniques available to better predict and understand performance of advanced oral drug delivery systems.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how computational modelling and simulation can be used to understand and design advanced drug delivery systems
• Learn how such systems can be studied in new tools assessing release, dissolution, digestion, and permeation in one assay
• Learn how to perform head-to-head comparisons between different formulation strategies and pick the right technology for your compound
  

Christel Bergström, Ph.D.

Dr Bergström is Professor in Molecular Pharmaceutics at Uppsala University, Sweden, and adjunct Professor at Monash University, Australia. She is heading a research group of ~30 people focusing on delivery of problematic compounds (poorly solubles, biologics). Her expertise area is within advanced drug delivery systems with focus on biorelevant profiling, computational prediction and novel manufacturing techniques. She is the Center Director of The Swedish Drug Delivery Center – an academic-industry partnership with 18 industrial partners from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Belgium and Italy. Dr Bergström has attracted funding to her research program from highly competitive sources, including the European Research Council (3), the Swedish Research Council (7), the National Institute of Health and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. She has published >130 papers and book chapters and has been cited >8600 times (h-index of 51). She is a sought for member of grant evaluation panels and scientific advisory boards.

Dr Bergström is a cofounder of the Nordic Pharma Network, an EXCO member of the Nordic University Hub within patient-oriented products (the Nordic POP initiative) and coordinator of the newly established Nordic Pharma Train initiative. She is also an EXCO member of the Globalization Pharmaceutics Education Network. She has founded four companies supporting companies in the drug delivery and development area. In 2017, she was elected Dean of collaboration (Medicine and Pharmacy) at Uppsala University. In this role, she is engaged in outreach activities, identification and establishment of strategic partnerships, interactions with governmental departments of importance for health and education, as well as increasing the academic awareness of the innovation system. In 2018, she became associate editor for the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.