CPL, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) of non-sterile liquid and topical drug products, recently discussed its approach to topical drug development and how it is supporting its customers with these new services. Brian Lankadurai, Ph.D., Senior Director of Product Development, outlined how CPL’s integrated approach to topical drug development can save its customers time and cost.
 
“In topical drug development the biggest challenge is to get the drug through the skin barrier to the target layer of the skin. At CPL our formulation and skin lab (IVRT/IVPT) teams are in the same facility and work side-by-side to quickly test new formulations to see if the drug is reaching the target layer of the skin,” Lankadurai explained.  “Having these two groups along with our analytical team working under the same roof really paves the way for accelerating the development process.”
 
One example of how this streamlined process led to faster formulation development is with a recent topical gel product with an NCE. The formulation team had generated 15-20 prototype formulations with different excipient combinations, and CPL’s skin lab scientists were able to test those prototypes for IVPT and determine which ones had the desired drug penetration. The results were fed back to CPL’s formulation team in real-time which lead to faster formulation selection and allowed the customer to make a quicker and informed decision to advance the best formula into a clinical trial.
 
“CPL has the internal capabilities to be the partner that our customers require. By having our teams working closely together, it provides a turnkey solution rather than our customers having to use separate service providers for each piece of the development process,” said Lankadurai.