What Drives Innovation: The Canadian Touch on Liposomal Therapeutics

Abstract

Liposomes are considered one of the most successful drug delivery systems (DDS) given their established utility and success in the clinic. In the past 40–50 years, Canadian scientists have made ground-breaking discoveries, many of which were successfully translated to the clinic, leading to the formation of biotech companies, the creation of research tools, such as the Lipex Extruder and the NanoAssemblr™, as well as contributing significantly to the development of pharmaceutical products, such as Abelcet®, MyoCet®, Marqibo®, Vyxeos®, and Onpattro™, which are making positive impacts on patients’ health. This review highlights the Canadian contribution to the development of these and other important liposomal technologies that have touched patients. In this review, we try to address the question of what drives innovation: Is it the individual, the teams, the funding, and/or an entrepreneurial spirit that leads to success? From this perspective, it is possible to define how innovation will translate to meaningful commercial ventures and products with impact in the future. We begin with a brief history followed by descriptions of drug delivery technologies influenced by Canadian researchers. We will discuss recent advances in liposomal technologies, including the Metaplex technology from the author’s lab. The latter exemplifies how a nanotechnology platform can be designed based on multidisciplinary groups with expertise in coordination chemistry, nanomedicines, disease, and business to create new therapeutics that can effect better outcomes in patient populations. We conclude that the team is central to the effort; arguing if the team is entrepreneurial and well positioned, the funds needed will be found, but likely not solely in Canada.

Rationale and Application of PEGylated Lipid-Based System for Advanced Target Delivery of siRNA

“…ONPATTRO™ (patisiran) has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first RNAi-based drug to be used clinically in 2018. More siRNA candidates are now in clinical trials ( Hu et al, 2019 ; Jayesh et al, 2019 ; Leung et al, 2019 ).…”

Rapid Microfluidic Preparation of Niosomes for Targeted Drug Delivery

“…PEGylated niosomes and TPT-loaded niosomes were prepared using a method based on microfluidic mixing. The microfluidic instrument NanoAssemblr TM (Precision Nano-Systems Inc., Vancouver, Canada), which enabled the controlled formation of vesicular structures via nanoprecipitation, was used [51]. Span 60, cholesterol, and DSPE-PEG(2000) maleimide were dissolved in 1.0 mL chloroform with a specific molar ratio (9.9: 9.9: 0.2).…”

Polymeric and Lipid Nanoparticles: Which Applications in Pediatrics?

“…Doxil ® (approved 1995), the first nanomedicine available on the market, is pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (90 nm) consisting of hydrogenated soybean phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol and N-(carbonyl-methoxypolyethyleneglycol2000)-1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine sodium (56:39:5 molar ratio), whereas Myocet ® (marketed in 2000) is non-pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (100–200 nm) consisting of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol (55:45 mole per cent) [ 66 ]. Both liposomes have been studied in clinical trials in pediatric patients.…”