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April 18, 2025
All-Division Colloquium
2025 Louis Busse Lecture:
Amorphous Drug Delivery – History, Contemporary Landscape and Challenges
- Lynne Taylor, PhD
Purdue University
Penicillin and warfarin were among the first amorphous drugs dosed to patients in the pre-1960’s era. At this time, amorphous drugs were considered unfavorable forms for development and commercialization. Fast forward to 2025 and there are more than fifty commercial formulations containing amorphous drugs, with many more in development. Herein, we will discuss why amorphous formulations have become so vital for oral delivery of today’s medicines. Recent mechanistic insight into release from amorphous solid dispersions, which consist of an amorphous drug molecularly blended with a suitable polymer, will be showcased. In particular, phase separation and its role in drug release and in vivo performance will be considered. Risks and benefits of amorphous drug delivery systems will be described with case studies. Finally, emerging challenges will be considered.
About the Speaker:
Lynne S. Taylor is the Retter Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy in the Department of Industrial and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Purdue University. Prior to moving to academia, she spent several years working at AstraZeneca in Sweden developing new drugs. Lynne received a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree with First Class Honours from the University of Bath in the UK. Her PhD was undertaken at the University of Bradford, UK, in the area of Pharmaceutical Technology. After her PhD, Lynne was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Research in Lynne’s group is directed toward exploring the science underlying the preformulation, formulation and manufacturing of drugs and other bioactive substances, with a particular focus on poorly water-soluble compounds.
Hosted by Drug DELIVERY – Lian Yu