The specialty pharmaceutical company BioPharmX, which develops products for the dermatology market, will give presentations on visualising minocycline skin penetration.
The research will be presented during two sessions at SPIE Photonics West, the world’s largest multidisciplinary event for photonics, Jan. 28 and 29 in San Francisco.
The two presentations are:
- “Visualisation of drug distribution of topical minocycline in human facial skin with fluorescence microscopy,” at 11:40 am on Jan 28.
- “Optical microscopy of targeted drug delivery and local distribution in skin of a topical minocycline,” at 8:50 am on Jan 29.
In the first presentation, BioPharmX Associate Scientist Maiko Hermsmeier will explain how the company was able to visualise minocycline in human skin and the pilosebaceous unit by inducing fluorescence in minocycline through a nonlinear optical approach with two-photon excitation.
In the second presentation, Kin F. Chan, Executive Vice President of research and technology at BioPharmX, will discuss a potential practical application for the newly developed process in guiding future clinical trials using two-photon fluorescence microscopy.
The Photonics West event attracts more than 20,000 people to find out about the latest research, devices and systems driving technology markets, including state-of-the art medical technologies.
“This is particularly exciting because we believe our novel use of two-photon fluorescence microscopy may hold significant potential for the medical and scientific communities for translational research,” said Kin F. Chan.
“We believe it can be used to visualise and eventually quantify the distribution of multiple drugs.
“This important because it promises a major advance to researchers working to optimise the frequency, dosage and timing of topical drug treatments,” Chan said.
BPX-01[1] is the first and only stable hydrophilic (non-oil-based) topical gel with fully solubilised minocycline that can penetrate the skin to deliver the antibiotic to where acne develops in the pilosebaceous unit.
The American Academy of Dermatology stated that acne affects 40–50 million Americans. The U.S. market for acne medications is estimated at $10 billion.
