InnoPharmax received ITDP grant worth USD 600,000 from Industrial Technology Development Program (ITDP) of Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). The grant will be applied over the next three years to develop the new oral dosage form of gemcitabine.
 

Oral dosage form is widely accepted by patients because of its convenient administration. However, the active pharmaceutical ingredient in conventional oral dosage forms, ex. tablets or capsules, may be hydrolyzed by enzymes or caused irritation or toxicity in the gastrointestinal tract.
 

Gemcitabine is a fluorine- substituted deoxycytidine analog with a broad spectrum of antitumor activity; however, due to its high first-pass effect via oral administration, conventional oral formulation is not preferred. In order to enhance the stability of gemcitabine as well as its bioavailability via oral administration, InnoPharmax has applied OralPAS^® technique on gemcitabine to prepare unique oral formulation. The preliminary animal studies with new gemcitabine OralPAS^® formulation has demonstrated promising results in bioavailbility enhancement.