TFF Pharmaceuticals Expands R&D Operations With New Austin Facility

TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced a significant expansion of its R&D operations through the lease of a new research and development facility located in Austin, TX.

The new facility of over 3,500 square feet significantly increases TFF’s total lab space, adding a dedicated lab for downstream processing of products created via Thin Film Freezing, which will complement the company’s existing formulation development capabilities. As TFF expands its in-house and partnered research, including applications in biologics, the additional laboratory space will also provide significantly more real estate to accommodate larger equipment to facilitate scale-up and manufacturing, as well as to produce supplies for preclinical studies.

The new space will be supervised by Donald Owens, PhD, Director of Product Development at TFF, and supported by John Koleng, PhD, RPh, Vice President of Product Development and Manufacturing. The company also plans to expand the product development team in Austin, which will be based at the new facility, to support the growing number of partnered projects. The lease arrangement used to finance the facility is also a major advantage, providing TFF with a highly flexible and capital efficient approach in expanding its R&D operations while preserving capital resources.

“The opening of our new Austin R&D facility represents an important evolution of TFF’s operations, reflecting growing demand for our Thin Film Freezing technology and product development services,” said Dr. Koleng. “The Austin facility will enable us to increase testing capacity so that we can run a larger number of feasibility studies, including a focus on biologics where demand has continued to grow. Additionally, as many of our partnered programs move to clinical evaluation, the ability to scale-up manufacturing in parallel becomes mission critical. We expect the new Austin facility will allow us to meet the current growing demand for Thin Film Freezing-based products.”

The addition of this facility also cements Austin as a central hub of TFF’s research operations. The company maintains a close relationship and research collaborations with academic institutions, including the University of Texas at Austin, where TFF has extensive early-stage formulation capabilities.

“As our internal programs advance and our network of partnerships expands, establishing this additional research space in Austin is a natural next step,” added Glenn Mattes, CEO of TFF Pharmaceuticals. “I’m confident that Don and John will spearhead a successful expansion and scale-up of TFF’s capabilities to meet growing demand. We will also continue to work closely with our partners, including Dr. Robert O. Williams, Special Advisor to TFF and Co-Inventor of the Thin Film Freezing technology, who continues to advance new research demonstrating the broad applications and advantages of our technology from his home base at UT Austin.”

TFF Pharmaceuticals’ proprietary Thin Film Freezing (TFF) technology allows for the transformation of both existing compounds and new chemical entities into dry powder formulations exhibiting unique characteristics and benefits. The Thin Film Freezing process is a particle engineering process designed to generate dry powder particles with advantageous properties for inhalation, as well as parenteral, nasal, oral, topical and ocular routes of administration. The process can be used to engineer powders for direct delivery to the site of need, circumventing challenges of systemic administration and leading to improved bioavailability, faster onset of action, and improved safety and efficacy. The ability to deliver therapies directly to the target organ, such as the lung, allows TFF powders to be administered at lower doses compared to oral drugs, reducing unwanted toxicities and side effects. Laboratory data suggests the aerodynamic properties of the powders created by Thin Film Freezing can deliver as much as 75% of the dose to the deep lung. Thin Film Freezing does not introduce heat, shear stress, or other forces that can damage more complex therapeutic components, such as fragile biologics, and instead enables the reformulation of these materials into easily stored and temperature-stable dry powders, making therapeutics and vaccines more accessible for distribution worldwide. The advantages of Thin Film Freezing can be used to enhance traditional delivery or combined to enable next-generation pharmaceutical products.

TFF Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaging patented rapid freezing technology to develop and transform medicines into potent dry powder formulations for better efficacy, safety and stability. The company’s versatile Thin Film Freezing (TFF) technology platform has broad applicability to convert any drug, including vaccines, small and large molecules and biologics, into an elegant dry powder ​highly advantageous for inhalation, with improved absorption so drugs can also be delivered to the eyes, nose and topically to the skin. TFF has two lead drug candidates in the clinic: Voriconazole Inhalation Powder and Tacrolimus Inhalation Powder, and continues to expand its pipeline by collaborating with a broad array of pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and government partners to revolutionize healthcare around the globe. The TFF Platform is protected by 120+ patents issued or pending in the US and internationally. For more information, visit https://tffpharma.com.