Parenteral Drug Delivery CDMO - Lipid-based Drug Products

Evonik is a global leader in contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services for lipid-based parenteral drug delivery. With over 30 years of experience, our Vancouver and Birmingham laboratories offer end-to-end support for the development, scale-up, and commercial manufacturing of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) and liposome-based formulations. From early feasibility to clinical trials and commercial supply, we help pharmaceutical and biotech companies bring complex parenteral products to market with confidence.

Evonik Vancouver Laboratories—formerly Transferra Nanosciences Inc. and Northern Lipids—has been a pioneer in lipid-based drug delivery since the 1990s. Our team has developed hundreds of LNP and liposome formulations for a wide range of therapeutic applications, including:

• mRNA, siRNA, DNA-based therapies
• Oncology and immunotherapy
• Synthetic vaccines
• Ligand-targeted formulations
• Imaging contrast agents
• Drug combinations and personalized medicine

Our expertise spans virtually all classes of pharmaceuticals, making us a trusted partner for companies seeking advanced nanomedicine solutions.

We offer a fully integrated portfolio of CDMO services to support your lipid-based drug product throughout its lifecycle:

• Formulation development: Excipient selection, buffer system design, and prototype preparation
• Feasibility studies: In vivo screening and process identification
• Analytical method development: Customized testing protocols and validation according to ICH guidelines
• Stability studies: Storage condition optimization and long-term testing
• Test article preparation: For IND-enabling toxicology and regulatory submissions

Our development-stage appropriate Quality by Design (QbD) approach ensures that critical process parameters are identified and controlled from the outset.

Evonik’s formulation development services are designed to make your drug product safer, more efficacious, and scalable. 

Typical formulation outcomes include:

• Gene and disease-site targeting
• Enhanced drug uptake and bioavailability
• Reduced dose volume and needle size
• Increased efficacy and safety
• Targeted drug distribution and reduced side effects

Our team works closely with you to tailor each formulation to your API, therapeutic goals, and administration route.

Our Vancouver CDMO site has set the industry standard for liposomal drug product manufacturing for over three decades. The facility includes:

• ISO 7 compounding area
• Grade A isolators for high-potency APIs
• Large-scale diafiltration systems
• Tray lyophilizers for scalable batch sizes (1 mL to hundreds of liters)

We offer sterile filtration, size reduction, and purification services to ensure reproducibility and scalability. For Phase III and commercial volumes, production can be seamlessly transferred to our Birmingham, Alabama site.

Evonik provides access to industry-leading technologies for lipid-based drug product manufacturing:

• LIPEX® extruders: Trusted for creating homogeneous liposome populations across lab, pilot, and commercial scales
• Microfluidics and micro-mixing: Used for nucleic acid LNPs to achieve controlled particle formation via solvent dilution

These technologies support rapid development and reliable scale-up for even the most complex formulations.

Our modern laboratories in Vancouver and Birmingham offer a full suite of analytical development and quality control services:

• Method development and validation (ICH-compliant)
• Lipid excipient testing
• Raw material and drug product release testing
• Stability storage testing
• Characterization tools: Dynamic light scattering (DLS), chromatography, bioanalyzer for nucleic acids

These capabilities ensure your formulation meets regulatory standards and performs consistently across batches.

• Proven track record in lipid-based drug delivery
• Decades of experience with LNPs and liposomes
• Global manufacturing network with seamless tech transfer
• Deep regulatory and analytical expertise
• Scalable solutions from benchtop to commercial supply
• Development-stage appropriate QbD and process characterization

Whether you're developing a first-in-class mRNA therapy or scaling up a liposomal formulation for commercial launch, Evonik is your trusted CDMO partner.