Dr Vivek Trivedi

Dr Vivek Trivedi obtained his degree in pharmacy from the Shri G.S. institute of Technology and Science, Indore, India (Rajiv Gandhi Technical University), in July 2002. He worked as a scientific representative in Dr Reddy's Lab Ltd., India before moving to UK in 2003 for his MSc in pharmaceutical sciences.

After the completion of his MSc he joined Phoqus Pharmaceutical Plc as a development scientist. Here he was responsible for the development and characterisation of coating formulations to be used with novel electrostatic dry powder deposition technology (EDPDT). During his stay in Phoqus he worked on projects funded by Unilever, Cordis and GlaxoSmithKline.

He returned to University of Greenwich in 2006 to join the department of Medway Sciences where he carried out his PhD with Professor John Mitchell entitled: 'Preparation of solid core drug delivery systems via supercritical fluid processing of fatty acids'.

In January 2010, Dr Trivedi joined the School of Science, University of Greenwich as a lecturer in formulation science. He is also the induction co-ordinator and research and enterprise associate for the School of Science.

Responsibilities within the university

Course Leader

Case study in non-pharmaceutical formulation

Course participation

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient Research and Development
Pharmaceutics
Pharmaceutics and Formulation
Practical and Professional Skills

Research

Dr Trivedi belongs to the Functional Interfaces Cluster within the School of Science and his research areas include pharmaceutics (formulation and drug delivery) and pharmaceutical analysis. A brief summary of one of his research interests is as follows:

Supercritical fluids offer a considerable promise as processing media for the formation of microparticles of drugs and pharmaceutical excipients. There are two main reasons for using this technique. Firstly, the selective solvating power of supercritical fluids makes it possible to separate a particular component from a multi-component mixture. Secondly, the favourable mass transfer properties and high solubility of solvent in supercritical fluid make the formation of the microparticles rapid and efficient.

Supercritical fluids also offer various other advantages such as use of organic solvents, high temperatures, high sheer stresses can be avoided which can therefore aid in the effective, safe and green processing of APIs and pharmaceutical excipients. Solubility behaviour of supercritical fluid can be altered or tuned by the fine adjustment of pressure and temperature. Supercritical fluids can also be utilised as a solute and can help in the depression of melting point or glass transition temperature of an excipient, allowing microparticle production at far lower temperatures.

Research focuses on the processing of excipients and APIs with supercritical CO2 and utilisation of this approach in the development of novel drug delivery systems (NDDS). Dr Trivedi is particularly interested in the "safe" formulation of NDDS for biologics for oral delivery which also entails incorporation of bio-molecules and proteins into inorganic host materials. Immobilisation of biologics on a solid surface improves their thermal and chemical stability. These biologics on an inorganic host can then be safely coated with lipids and/or other suitable excipient using supercritical fluid processing. This approach can provide sustained, targeted and safe passage to a drug to the lower intestine where it can be released and absorbed.

Research interests also include development of novel inorganic materials as well as preparation of nanoparticles using green technologies i.e. supercritical fluid technology and microwave synthesis.

Recent publications

Trivedi, V. et al. (2010) Zn2+-exchange kinetics and antimicrobial properties of synthetic zirconium umbite (K2ZrSi3O9_H2O). J. Porous Mater, doi:10.1007/s10934-009-9346-8.

Mitchell, J., and Trivedi, V. (2010) Pharmaceutical nanomaterials: the preparation of solid core drug delivery systems (SCDDS). Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 62, pp. 1457–8.