The collaboration, Access’ third oral drug delivery research collaboration, is aimed at combining Access’ proprietary vitamin B12 oral drug delivery technology with Hunter-Fleming’s Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate, Oligotropin (HF0420).
The vitamin B12 oral drug delivery technology utilizes the body’s natural transport system for vitamin B12. This receptor-mediated process actively transports vitamin B12 from the gut to the blood stream. Access’ scientists have found that the attachment of vitamin B12 to drugs, polymers containing drugs, as well as drugs encapsulated within nanoparticles, provide formulations which are absorbed into the body using the vitamin B12 uptake mechanism.
Oligotropin (HF0420) has been shown in vivo to be not only neuroprotective, but to have neurotrophic/neurorepair activity and to reduce behavioral deficits in the elderly. The compound has already completed phase Ia studies. It is orally active and the collaboration is intended to improve oral bioavailability.