Development of a new engineering-based capsule for human drug absorption studies.

Over recent years, there has been a significant growth in the number of new drugs entering development with challenging pharmaceutical (e.g. solubility) and biopharmaceutical (e.g. permeability) properties. As a consequence, there is an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies using human absorption studies to provide a 'route map' for development. These projects are typically undertaken early in clinical development and utilize engineering-based capsules to provide non-invasive drug delivery to the selected sites of the human gut. The Enterion capsule has recently been developed to provide for the delivery of a wide range of different drug formulations, for example, solution, powder and granulate, into any region of the gut, both easily and efficiently.