Enable Injections Presents Survey Results Highlighting Missed Opportunities in Subcutaneous Oncology Drug Development at AACR 2025
CINCINNATI, April 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Enable Injections, Inc. (“Enable”), a healthcare innovation company developing and manufacturing the enFuse® wearable drug delivery platform, announced today the presentation of a poster featuring new findings from a survey of drug development experts exploring the systemic underutilization of promising large-volume subcutaneous oncology therapies and misconceptions hindering their development at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, taking place April 25-30, in Chicago.
Survey results revealed a widespread – and often misguided – belief that subcutaneous delivery volumes must be limited to 3 mL or less without a permeation enhancer (an enzyme co-formulated with the drug that interacts with the subcutaneous space and increases its permeability). The survey findings suggest that this perception has led to the premature abandonment or deprioritization of numerous oncology assets that have strong clinical and commercial potential.
“Innovation in oncology drug development is being stifled by long-standing misconceptions among drug developers about subcutaneous delivery volumes,” said Mehul Desai, PharmD, MBA, lead author of the poster and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Enable Injections. “More than 90% of survey respondents reported they have seen investigational oncology medicines shelved due to limitations in delivering large subcutaneous volumes. Yet, most biopharma companies are open to re-evaluating these assets if appropriate delivery solutions are available.”
The online survey of 46 drug development experts at biotech/pharma companies and contract research organizations in the U.S., Europe and Asia was conducted in November 2024. The survey explored perceptions of subcutaneous volume thresholds, factors influencing the deprioritization of oncology drug candidates, the potential of large-volume delivery solutions, and how organizations track and revisit deprioritized candidates. Survey participants included senior/mid-level managers, technical experts or specialists involved in strategic decision-making, and executive/senior leaders.
Key findings from the 46 survey participants whose primary area of expertise is oncology included the following:
- 91% had been directly involved in projects where a drug was deprioritized or abandoned due to challenges in achieving small volumes (<3 ml) for subcutaneous administration.
- 63% reported that large-volume drugs are pursued only if they offer distinct clinical benefits or address a high unmet need within the therapeutic area.
- 37% of organizations maintain an archive or database of deprioritized or abandoned drugs, with senior decision-makers expressing strong willingness to revisit candidates if delivery challenges can be overcome.
“Patients with cancer generally prefer subcutaneous over intravenous administration, but some oncology molecules with commercial potential remain largely unexplored by biopharma companies because of misconceptions around large-volume subcutaneous delivery. These survey insights reinforce the potential of technologies such as enFuse to offer a viable path forward for valuable oncology therapeutics once deemed unviable,” said Michael D. Hooven, Chairman and CEO of Enable Injections. “Our enFuse platform is uniquely positioned to address challenges in developing large-volume subcutaneous oncology drugs. This wearable delivery system enables large-volume, high-viscosity subcutaneous drug administration in either clinical settings or home self-administration.”
Details of the poster presentation at the 2025 AACR meeting are as follows:
- Poster Title: Insights from Drug Development Experts: Surveying Challenges and Outcomes for Large-Volume, Subcutaneous Oncology Drugs
- Session Title: Drug Delivery
- Session Category: Chemistry
- Date and Time: April 28, 9:00am-12:00pm CT
- Poster Number: 16
- Abstract Number: 1855
About Enable Injections
Cincinnati-based Enable Injections is a global healthcare innovation company committed to improving the patient treatment experience through the development and manufacturing of enFuse. enFuse is an innovative wearable drug delivery platform that is designed to deliver large volumes of pharmaceutical and biologic therapeutics via subcutaneous administration, with the aim of improving convenience, supporting superior outcomes, and advancing healthcare system economics.
Enable is currently working with a number of pharmaceutical partners to conduct clinical trials and plan for joint commercial launch of their therapies in combination with the enFuse technology. Enable’s enFuse technology recently received CE Mark approval in Europe and its first combination product U.S. FDA approval in 2023.
For more information about the Company’s approved enFuse combination production, visit https://enableinjections.com/our-products.
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