Easy to use, high resistance packaging solutions for the parenteral delivery of drugs that target the brain and central nervous system (CNS).

Therapies for the treatment of neurological and mental disorders are an important fraction of the pharmaceutical market. Such disorders include epilepsy, schizophrenia, stroke and brain trauma, depression, vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and their prevalence is significant. For example, epilepsy which is one of the most common neurological disorders affects around 50 million people globally*. Psychoanaleptics and psycholeptic, drugs that arouse or calm respectively, account for a substantial number of therapies for these disorders and growth in the use of biotherapeutics is an important trend. Cannabidiol (CBD)-based products have also proven effective, particularly for the treatment of epilepsy. Drugs with either neuro-protective and/or neuro-regenerative properties are vital for the treatment of both degenerative diseases and acute conditions such as trauma or stroke.

The brain and CNS are extremely well-protected and penetration of the barriers that maintain their microenvironment is a major challenge when it come to delivering drugs for neurological conditions and mental disorders. Raising systemic concentrations of the drug to relatively high levels is a common strategy**. Parenteral drug delivery enables the precise control of drug levels in the body and can be used for extended drug release products, or conversely, to achieve rapid drug delivery and action. It is particularly valuable for patients or conditions ill-suited to oral therapies. Around 20% by volume of drugs delivered parenterally are for the treatment of conditions associated with the brain and CNS***.

Glass packaging is routinely selected for high value drugs formulated for parenteral delivery because it is:

• the most chemically resistance material for many formulations
• highly impermeable, which can be critical for drug stability
• heat resistant, enhancing suitability for lyophilization and other forms of heat treatment
• when it comes, facilitating product inspection.

SGD Pharma offers a wide range of Type I & Type II glass packaging for drugs for neurological and mental disorders, notably injection vials and infusion bottles in a range of volumes. The portfolio includes high integrity solutions to maintain the shelf-life of biopharmaceutical drugs which can be extremely sensitive to extractables and leachables. Solutions for high viscosity formulations and for those with high pH are also available.

Follow the links to find out more about the products available:

* Who Health Organization fact sheets: Epilepsy. June 2019. Available to view at:

https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/epilepsy

** C.T. Lu ‘Current approaches to enhance CNS delivery of drugs across the brain barriers’ Int J Nanomedicine. 2014, 9 pp2241 – 2257. Available to view at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4026551/

*** IQVIA MIDAS Actual 2018