Uppsala University researchers show that the new material Upsalite has great potential for development of new formulations of rejected drugs.

Upsalite, presented in 2013, had the highest surface area ever measures for an alkali earth metal carbonate; 800 square meters per gram. According to a new study published in International Journal of Pharmaceutics, the extremely porous magnesium carbonate Upsalite may provide a great potential for the development of new drug formulations of active pharmaceutical ingredients with poor aqueous solubility. The study showed that as the pain killer Ibuprofen was used as a model substance for poorly soluble drugs, it was shown that crystallisation of the drug was completely supressed in the formulation, resulting in both a higher solubility and a three times faster dissolution rate of the drug.

“These findings could allow the pharma companies to open up large libraries of potent drug candidates earlier discarded due to solubility problems and try them again together with Upsalite,” says Maria Strømme, Professor at the Division of Nanotechnology and Functional Materials at Uppsala University.

The discovery will be commercialized though the University spin-out company Disruptive Materials AB that has been formed by the researchers together with the holding company of Uppsala University.