Velius Rx Products

With over 125 million chronic sufferers, psoriasis is one of the world’s most vexing dermatological problems. Breakouts are painful, itchy, uncomfortable and embarrassing. Lack of a cure creates a large market for palliative medications. Current offerings include ineffective topical creams as a first-line treatment; expensive and dangerous Anti-TNF- α drugs are more appropriate as a third line treatment. Cortisone injections to each plaque would be a reasonable, but exquisitely painful, second-line treatment. Our nanotechnology-enabled delivery system offers the ability to provide this effective second-line treatment without the needle. It avoids the dangers of the third-line drugs while drastically reducing costs to third-party payers.

While the majority of the therapeutic benefit from PsoriaFilm is due to amplification of  percutaneous delivery of corticosteroid, calcipotriol provides some added benefit.  The efficacy of calcipotriol in the treatment of psoriasis was first noticed by the observation of patients receiving various forms of vitamin D in an osteoporosis study. Unexpectedly, some patients who also suffered from psoriasis experienced dramatic reductions in lesion counts.  Calcipotriol is an analog of Vitamin-D and the delivery of this is covered by our patents. The vitamin D receptor belongs to the steroid/thyroid receptor superfamily, and is found on the cells of many different tissues including the thyroid, bone, kidney, and T cells of the immune system. T cells are known to play a role in psoriasis, and it is thought that the binding of calcipotriol to the VDR modulates the T cells gene transcription of cell differentiation and proliferation related genes in the psoriasis process. Our pipeline product includes film-delivery of calcipotriol as well transdermal, amplified and highly targeted delivery of corticosteroids. This combined approach promises to be uniquely effective in providing relief for psoriasis sufferers without resorting to injectables or dangerous systemic immunosuppressives. It is attractive as a cost-saving measure offering a much less expensive and safer alternative to Anti-TNF-α drugs.

Eczema affects approximately four times as many people as psoriasis, with many variations on how this skin disorder may present. Severe cases are often resistant to topical treatment and require cortisone shots.  The prospect of a cortisone shot is not a pleasant one for the patient. Our nanotechnology-enabled CortiFilm drives the cortisone transepidermally, allowing patients to bypass the needle. We know of no near-term competition for this exciting technology.

There are several additional topical drug delivery areas, offering injectable medications with no needle, that are in process. At present, the company has decided not to disclose the areas in which these products are being developed. Check back here in the future to see detailed descriptions of them as they get closer to FDA approval.