June 22, 2005 – Liquidia Technologies Inc. and the U. of NC-Chapel Hill announced that they have reportedly created the world’s tiniest manufactured particles for delivering drugs and biological materials into the human body. This technology results in strict control over shape, size, and composition of material when manufacturing nanoparticles.

The innovative process has widespread pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications for drug formulation, drug delivery, medical imaging and disease detection, in addition to nonmedical nanotechnology applications such as sensors, taggants, ink jet printing, semiconductors and microelectronics.

The technology, Particle Replication in Nonwetting Templates (PRINT), enables fabrication of custom-sized, monodispersed, and shape-specific particles of virtually any material and encapsulating nearly any active cargo. This includes delicate substances, biological agents, and small molecules, which can then be delivered through a full range of injectable, pulmonary, topical, and oral methods. Applications are expected to have a profound positive impact on human health care in areas such as oncology and biodefense.

“This technique allows for development of a particle foundry, similar to continuous manufacturing techniques in the microelectronics industry, but for fabricating delicate particles for use in nanomedicines and other emerging nanotechnologies,” noted Dr. W. Lowry Caudill, executive chairman of Liquidia Technologies and former co-founder of Magellan Laboratories.