Novo Nordisk is to develop the next generation of drug delivery devices for peptide administration in collaboration with MIT.
The primary goal is to create delivery vehicles that can provide an alternative to parenteral or injection-based delivery of peptides.
The research will be conducted at the Langer Laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and at Novo’s facilities in Denmark.
Professor Robert Langer, head of the Langer Laboratory at MIT, said: “We are very excited to be doing research sponsored by Novo Nordisk to address one of the current greatest challenges in drug delivery.”
Professor Langer’s laboratory team focus on creating new techniques for delivering drugs across complex barriers such as the blood-brain barrier, the intestine, the lungs and the skin.
Alongside Dr Giovanni Traverso, gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer at Harvard Medical School, they will lead the team in its development programme.
Today, there are numerous challenges surrounding the development and production of reliable peptide delivery vehicles. These include poor transport over epithelial barriers, limited absorption rates as well as producing peptide and delivery vehicles on larger scales in a cost-effective manner.
The research deal will run for three years with an option to later extend it for an additional three years.