CAPRO™ is Trekka's patented biodegradable polymer excipient platform. Functional polymer blocks connected by cleavable linkers pre-program release kinetics at the molecular level — before the formulation ever reaches the patient. No organic solvents. No acidic byproducts. No modification to the API.
CAPRO™ is a structurally distinct biodegradable polymer architecture. Every existing delivery platform — PLGA microspheres, in situ forming implants, liposomes, hydrogels, and PEGylation — shares fundamental limitations: harsh processing, toxic degradation products, limited release tunability, or API modification that resets the regulatory clock. CAPRO™ was designed to solve all of them in one platform.
CAPRO™ is applicable to four distinct problem categories — each addressable independently, or in combination when a molecule presents multiple challenges simultaneously.
Every existing delivery technology has fundamental structural limitations. CAPRO™ was designed from first principles to address all of them simultaneously.
| Competing technology | Limitation | Weakness | CAPRO™ advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| In situ forming implant systemsLiquid polymers that solidify in vivo | Solvent toxicity | Injecting large amounts of potentially harmful organic solvents directly into the patient's body | Completely solvent-free at every stage of formulation and delivery |
| Release control | Rate depends on in vivo conditions rather than pre-set chemistry | Pre-programmable release tunable by selecting functional blocks and linker structure | |
| Manufacturing | Complicated chemistry — difficult to reproduce and scale to GMP standard | Simple physical mixing — straightforward CMO technology transfer | |
| Microspheres & nanoparticles of polyestersPLA, PLGA and related polymers | Heat & scale-up failure | High temperature and mechanical stress damages API — failures amplified at commercial batch sizes | Room-temperature physical mixing — API integrity preserved identically from bench to commercial scale |
| Acidic byproducts | Degrades to lactic and glycolic acid — acidic microenvironment damages API and causes chronic inflammation | No acidic byproducts — neutral pH and biocompatible degradation throughout the full depot period | |
| Liposomes & lipid nanoparticlesPhospholipid vesicle systems | Short duration | Rapid in vivo clearance — unsuitable for LAI programs requiring weeks to months | Days to months — duration set by linker chemistry, not subject to clearance variability |
| Release control | Vesicle leakage and instability make kinetics unpredictable batch to batch | Pre-programmed polymer erosion via cleavable linkers — predictable and reproducible every batch | |
| HydrogelsCrosslinked hydrophilic networks | Solubility mismatch | Hydrophilic matrix incompatible with BCS Class II & IV molecules | Hydrophobic matrix fully solubilizes poorly soluble drugs — handles BCS Class II and IV |
| Short duration | Rapid swelling and erosion limits depot life to hours or days | Sustained release — backbone erosion pre-programmed by linker selection, days to months | |
| Burst release | Surface drug releases immediately on contact — spike then sub-therapeutic levels | Zero or first-order kinetics — full profile set by cleavable linker design before in vivo exposure | |
| PEGylation & pro-drug approachesChemical modification of the API | Regulatory reset | Modifying the API creates a new chemical entity — full 505(b)(1) NDA with entirely new safety datasets | API structure never altered — existing safety data preserved, 505(b)(2) always available |
CAPRO™ never modifies the API — which means 505(b)(2) is available for every program. Whether you're converting an approved drug into an LAI or bringing a new molecule to CAPRO™, the regulatory path is cleaner and faster than a full NDA from scratch.
CAPRO™ is adapted per molecule type — the platform's tunability means formulation parameters are optimized for each specific API class rather than applied generically.