Juan Manuel Irache, PhD and professor at the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra, has been named corresponding academician of the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia, which recognizes the career of the expert at Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology.

The institution, which brings together several dozen national and international professionals, has as goal promote anddisseminates scientific and technical advances related to pharmaceutical sciences and cooperation with administrations.

Juan Manuel Irache, PhD in Pharmacy, is already a corresponding member of the French National Academy of Pharmacy, with which he has collaborated in the preparation of a dictionary of pharmaceutical terms. He is also a member of the National Commission of the specialization program of Industrial and Galenic Pharmacy and co-author of more than 160 articles in international scientific journals and some thirty book chapters. In the field of research, he has participated in the development of 16 patented inventions, directed or co-directed 26 doctoral thesis and 15 post-doctoral stays. 

Peptides, proteins and biosimilars

Precisely his speech of incorporation to the institution was focused on the importance of peptides and therapeutic proteins for clinical use, whose sales doubled between 2006 and 2012 to reach $125 billion and could reach 20% of the pharmaceutical market in 2017, with a turnover of $220 billion.

According to the pharmaceutical technology expert, this trend will be on the rise because today only about 150 proteins have been commercialized out of the 1,000 to 2,000 that are expected to reach the market in the next 20 years. "This trend is one of the major lines of the pharmaceutical industry due to the inherent advantages of this subject of drugs over "simple" drugs obtained by synthesis. In addition, we must take into account the huge field of activity that is opening up with biosimilars, drugs of biotechnological origin with efficacy and safety comparable to the innovator of reference letter, once the patent has expired. Something like generics".

Another of the great revolutions in the market will come from new ways of administering these peptides and proteins, for example in the case of diabetes, by mouth, eye, subcutaneous, etc. and by controlled release, "so that it will not be necessary to inject a daily amount, but rather that this process will be simpler and easier for the patient. The same would happen with vaccines, the treatment of allergies or diagnostic proteins, since the field of application is enormous," concludes the expert, professor at department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology of the University of Navarra.