AnelleO is harnessing the advancements in the speed and scale of 3D printing technology for novel solutions in Women’s Health. Intravaginal Rings (IVR) offer a unique platform for sustained delivery of therapeutics – a non-invasive, self-administered and retrievable platform that can deliver drugs over a period of weeks or months.
Dr. Rahima Benhabbour’s roots in advocacy for women’s health issues run deep. As an assistant professor in the UNC/N.C. State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and an adjunct professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, her research interest is drug delivery devices for disease prevention and treatment.
On a mission for innovation and translational science, Rahima Benhabbour is using 3D-printing technology and her startup company AnelleO to create a breakthrough in women's health. Rahima Benhabbour has always been an advocate for women's health issues. As an assistant professor in the UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and an adjunct professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, her passion is to develop innovative technologies that prevent HIV infections and other health conditions in women. For more information see the IDTechEx report on 3D Printing in the Medical and Dental Industry 2019 - 2029.
Rahima Benhabbour is an academic, a former postdoctoral fellow at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and an assistant professor in the UNC and N.C. State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Rahima Benhabbour has always been an advocate for women’s health issues. As an assistant professor in the UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and an adjunct professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, her passion is to develop innovative technologies that prevent HIV infections and other health conditions in women.
On a mission for innovation and translational science, Rahima Benhabbour is using 3D-printing technology and her startup company AnelleO to create a breakthrough in women’s health.
Dr. Soumya Rahima Benhabbour is from the North African country of Morocco where, according to UNAIDS, there has been a 42 percent reduction in new HIV infections since 2010.
After six years, 250 local companies mentored and more than $430 million in capital raised by these companies, the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network–RTP celebrated these accomplishments at a Carolina campus event July 20.
Rahima Benhabbour is a woman on an amazing mission. Not only is she a professor at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy University department in Chapel Hill, North Carolina she’s also founder of AnnelleO, a 3D printed intravaginal ring.
Three faculty-led startups at UNC-Chapel Hill are moving closer to commercialization after receiving more than $89,000 in funding from the university’s KickStart Venture Services program.
Intravaginal rings (IVRs) represent a well-established, woman-controlled and sustained vaginal drug delivery system suitable for a wide range of applications.
The results of recent research suggest it is possible that women could have access to an intravaginal ring that can serve both as a contraceptive and as HIV prevention. The ring would be created through 3D printing technology. So far, it has been tested for safety in sheep, and it could be several years before clinical trials are underway.
Globally, there are 20 million adolescent girls and young women living with HIV who have limited access to long-acting, effective, women-controlled preventative methods. Additionally, although there are many contraceptive methods available, globally, half of all pregnancies remain unintended. Here we report the first 3D-printed multipurpose prevention technology (MPT) intravaginal ring (IVR) for HIV prevention and contraception.
Additive manufacturing has long been acclaimed as the tool for next-generation drug delivery device production. An ongoing challenge has remained with the best method of therapeutic incorporation into these devices as the layering mechanisms associated with 3D printing can be harsh and incompatible with most drugs of interest. We propose a method of post-fabrication absorption, or post-loading, of a silicone-based matrix fabricated with digital light synthesis (DLS).
Rahima Benhabbour’s innovative medical devices have the potential to benefit marginalized women around the globe.
This work represents a critical step in advancing translational simulation-based research (TSR). While there are several examples of high quality translational research programs, they primarily focus on procedural tasks and do not evaluate highly complex skills such as leadership.
Intravaginal rings (IVRs) represent a sustained‐release approach to drug delivery and have long been used and investigated for hormones and microbicides delivery. For decades, IVRs have been manufactured by injection molding and hot‐melt extrusion with very limited design and material capabilities. Additive manufacturing (AM), specifically digital light synthesis (DLS), represents an opportunity to harness the freedom of design to expand control and tunability of drug release properties from IVRs. A novel approach to IVR design and manufacturing is reported that results in geometrically complex internal architectures through the incorporation of distinct unit cells using computationally aided design (CAD) software. A systematic approach is developed to design through the generation of an IVR library and the effects of these parameters are investigated on ring properties. The ability to precisely and predictably control the compressive properties of the IVR independent of the internal architecture with which control of drug release kinetics can be achieved is demonstrated, thus opening the door for a “plug‐and‐play” platform approach to IVR fabrication.
Infertility is a global health problem, and in the US ~1.7 million women are treated for infertility every year1. There is a strong need to promote patient friendly methods for progesterone supplementation in assisted reproductive technology (ART). Intravaginal rings are well tolerated by women, are efficacious for contraception and hormone replacement therapy, have high patient compliance 2-5, and are now in development for ART6-8. However, developing effective IVRs to deliver progesterone beyond 7 days is challenging due to limitations of current engineering processes9-10, and difficulty in controlling release rates, thus mandating drug-specific customized IVR designs.
AnelleO is harnessing the advancements in the speed and scale of 3D printing technology for novel solutions in Women’s Health. AnelleO’s first products are Intravaginal Rings (IVRs), which offer a unique platform for sustained delivery of therapeutics – a non-invasive, self-administered and retrievable platform that can deliver drugs over a period of days to months.
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