Strategies To Overcome Delays In The Development Of Genomic Medicines

Genomic medicine provides an excellent prospect for faster drug development, as proven by COVID vaccines. They also offer a more accurate diagnosis, tailored treatments and promising therapeutic applications to achieve better outcomes in disease management. However, many potential drugs remain in the research and clinical stages, creating challenges in implementing genomic medicine as it becomes difficult to establish tests' clinical validity and utility.

On average, it takes over 12 years and often much longer from discovery to commercialization of new medicine. Nucleic acid therapeutics that use RNA-LNP technology has emerged as a promising approach for creating safe, targeted treatments that act on specific cells in a much shorter time, offering endless possibilities for new therapies. The ability of mRNA-LNPs to induce the expression of nearly any protein makes them invaluable in personalized medicine, gene-editing, and immuno-oncology applications. However, the biggest hurdle in developing nanomedicine is the difficulty in delivering these therapeutics to their target cells.

LNPs have been widely studied as a non-viral delivery vehicle for nucleic acids, especially after the approval of the Onpattro® (Patisiran) and COVID-19 vaccines. Lipid nanoparticles consist of ionizable lipids, helper lipids, cholesterol, and PEG lipids, each having a specific role. The ratio and chemical properties of each component affect the LNP efficiency and ionizable lipids are one of the key strategic components that can greatly influence the LNP properties and efficiency. Learn how optimizing these lipids can help overcome drug-delivery challenges, unlocking potential new genomic medicines in a shorter time.