Aphios
Corporation Granted United States Patent for Drug Manufacturing
Process Rapidly and Selectively Manufactures Truly “Green”
Medicines
June
29, 1999
— Aphios
Corporation has been granted United States Patent No. 5,750,709,
entitled “Method and Apparatus for Isolating Therapeutic
Compositions from Source Materials,” which is now
available for licensing.
The
patented process utilizes supercritical, critical or near-critical
fluids with/without cosolvents (SuperFluids™) for
the selective and rapid manufacturing of natural medicines
(pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals). SuperFluids™ are
normally gases which, when compressed, exhibit enhanced
solvation, penetration, expansion and disruption properties.
These fluids can improve the isolation of natural medicines
by a factor of 1,000 to 10,000 in times as low as 40 minutes
in the laboratory to a nominal 4 hours per batch for large-scale
processing in Aphios’ SuperFluids™ critical fluid
extraction and purification (CXP) process.
Natural
medicines have developed rapidly in the last decade, especially
among baby boomers looking to extend youth and with the
trend in the general population for more natural solutions.
Approximately 25 % of the pharmaceuticals in the US are
either natural or semi-synthetically derived from natural
sources, resulting in a marketplace of about $23 billion.
The nutraceutical marketplace in the US, estimated to be
$3 billion in 1996, is expanding at a compounded rate of
more than 20 % per year.
In
addition to speed and selectivity of extraction and purification,
benefits of Aphios’ SuperFluids™ technology include:
(i) high overall yields ( > 90 %) and purities ( >
99.5 % for natural pharmaceuticals); (ii) production of
either multiple single-molecule products (natural pharmaceuticals)
or standardized multi-molecule products (nutraceuticals
and herbal medicines); and (iii) reduced manufacturing costs
(as much as 75 % for some natural pharmaceuticals). The
CXP process does not require the use of toxic organic
solvents (minimal environmental impact) and utilizes renewable
biomass sources (minimal biodiversity impact) such as the
green leaves of trees.
SuperFluids™
CXP technology can be utilized to manufacture nutraceutical
products such as saw palmetto for the treatment of mild
to moderate benign prostate enlargement and St. John’s
Wort for mild to moderate depression. Other candidate products
include: ginseng used to boost mental and physical resistance
to stress; ginkgo biloba used for increasing concentration
and attention span as well as helping those suffering from
Alzheimer’s; kava kava used to combat anxiety; and
echinacea used for the prevention and treatment of colds
and flu; as well as specialty flavors and fragrances. The
technology can also be utilized to manufacture natural pharmaceuticals
such as taxols, bryostatins and camptothecins.
Research
leading to the development of this technology was partially
funded by Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants
from the National Cancer Institute.
Aphios
Corporation is a privately held research and development
company headquartered at 3-E Gill Street, Woburn, Massachusetts
01801, USA, tel: (781) 932-6933, fax: (781) 932-6865, e-mail:
aphios@aol.com. The
Company is developing research tools and industrial processes
for the improved discovery, manufacturing, delivery and
safety of naturally derived and genetically engineered therapeutics
for the treatment of cancer, AIDS, and other infectious
diseases in a cost-effective manner. The Company is profiled
in a recent interview on http://www.wallstreetinterview.com.
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