Diant Pharma – the best choice for transforming LNPs with continuous manufacturing

The Silicon Review

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are nanoparticles composed of lipids. They are a novel pharmaceutical drug delivery system (and part of nanoparticle drug delivery), and a novel pharmaceutical formulation. LNPs as a drug delivery vehicle were first approved in 2018 for the siRNA drug Onpattro.

Diant Pharma was formed in 2019. Its groundbreaking technology emerged from years of rigorous research at the University of Connecticut, resulting in differentiated, innovative continuous processing technologies for nanoparticle-based therapeutics and vaccines. It recognizes the exciting, pivotal role of nanoparticles as pharmaceutical delivery methods and their unique roles in other industries. Its aim is to disruptively transform LNPs with continuous manufacturing that makes their production faster, more efficient, and less risky – ultimately increasing speed to market.

Creatively curated services Diant provides its clients

mRNA-LNP Technology: Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have become the delivery technology of choice for nanomedicines. They offer the necessary efficacy and production efficiency for a new generation of increasingly complex therapeutics, vaccines, and oncology treatments. LNP therapeutics like mRNA vaccines demonstrate a high efficacy compared with traditional medicines but require modernized methods of manufacture in order to be produced cost-effectively at scale.

With numbers of these mRNA treatments, including therapeutics based in gene editing, growing in both clinical trials and on the market, updating these modes of production has become more pressing than ever. Increasing drug complexity necessitates new technologies that can successfully encapsulate active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to support efficacy.

Biotargeting: Biotargeted nanomedicines are intravenously injected nanoparticles that distribute a drug or imaging agent into the body in a targeted manner. They can target specific organs and tissues all the way down to cells and sub-cellular compartments.

These medicines have emerged as promising diagnostics and treatments for certain cancers and even brain injuries. It’s clear that the future of medicines based on the targeted deployment of liquid drugs is promising, with long-acting targeted injectable also on the horizon.

Particle Engineering: Changes in cGMP biopharmaceutical manufacturing have accompanied the emergence of biotargeted nanomedicines, including developments in particle engineering.

Multiple properties of nanoparticles need to be controlled in order to develop effective, non-invasive treatments and diagnostics. The size, shape, chemistry, surface properties, and structure of nanoparticles are just a few properties that determine their bioavailability, therapeutic potential, and ultimately their performance in medicines and other applications. Naturally, controlling these properties in engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) is becoming a major priority in pharmaceutical manufacturing in order to ensure the quality and efficacy of these new nanomedicines and other nanoparticle products.

The use of closed system nanoparticle manufacturing like DIANT’s proprietary process has been shown to greatly help manage these qualities by automatically controlling particle size and limiting the necessity for human involvement during the manufacturing process.

Nanoparticle Technology: Diant offers the only integrated continuous manufacturing system on the market. Compared with off-the-shelf technology, the company’s systems provide the advantage of a continuous process, more uniform particles, and equipment that replaces the existing outdated technology in batch processing.

cGMP Design services: The company’s extensive expertise in nanoparticle formulation makes it a great choice as a partner in cGMP design, process analytical technology (PAT) integration, and other nanoparticle-related services from planning through commercial formulation. With the company’s consulting partner, Diant offers cGMP design services including:

conceptual design services
cleaning validation overview
construction support

R&D services: Research and development of a nanomedicine or other nanoparticle product can be an arduous and confusing process. Partnering with Diant affords the client’s access to the company’s nanoparticle experts, who can support customers throughout the R&D process with the company’s proprietary continuous manufacturing technology and the knowledge of a team whose benchmark technology is being used by the FDA to better understand advanced manufacturing technologies. The services also include:

Formulation and Product Development
Outsourced R&D and Manufacturing
Flexible Process Analytical Technology Integration
Analytical Method Development & Particle Characterization
Feasibility Studies
System Customization

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Its systems have many proven applications across nanoparticle-based drug and vaccine manufacturing, including:

Lipid nanoparticles – LNP technology has emerged as the leading encapsulation method for complex APIs, including mRNA-based products
Liposomes
Polymeric micelles
Lipid-polymer conjugate systems
Suspensions
Emulsions

Food, Beverage, and Nutraceutical Production: Due to their high surface area-to-volume ratio compared to microscale particles, nanoparticles are an effective way to alter various characteristics in food, beverage, and nutraceutical products.

Nanoparticles are used in the beverage industry to treat and purify water and are commonly incorporated into beverages as nanoemulsions, which are colloidal suspensions that often make use of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for flavoring, color, and nutrient-inclusion. LNPs are known for their strength as emulsifying agents because of their bioavailability, performance, and resistance to unwanted degradation.

Cosmetics Manufacturing: The cosmetics and skincare industry has long made use of nanotechnology, with the first nanoparticle-based products being released in the mid-1980s. Since then, they have become a staple of cosmetic formulations, and are used to enhance everything from moisturizing power to UV protection. The use of nanotechnology in cosmetics can also provide:

Increased entrapment efficiency
Increased dermal penetration of active ingredients
Enhanced product stability
Controlled drug release

Meet the leader behind the success of Diant

Antonio Costa, Founder and CEO

Antonio Costa has extensive knowledge of nanoparticle processing, and spent 7 years working on the development of the University of Connecticut’s continuous manufacturing system. After receiving his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from UConn, Dr. Costa served as an Assistant Research Professor at the UConn School of Pharmacy before founding DIANT Pharma in 2019.