K. Box
Pion Inc. (UK) Ltd.

Position
Chief Scientific Officer

Background
Karl Box was appointed as the Chief Scientific Officer at Sirius Analytical Ltd., in January 2015, where he has the overall responsibility for all scientific and chemistry related functions within the company. His expertise is in the field of physicochemical measurements where he has forged a successful career in the development of new instrumentation and assays for physicochemical property determination.

He has published on many topics including solubility and lipophilicity and its relationship to the Biopharmaceutical Classification System and explored the ideas of improving a compounds classification through the use of supersaturation and solubility enhancement strategies, all high-agenda items for the oral biopharmaceutics and drug delivery sectors.

Karl has been responsible for leading a team that has developed small-scale dissolution equipment with quantitation by in-situ UV-fibre optic spectroscopy and introduced in-situ physiological pH gradients as a research tool for understanding API behavior following gastric to intestinal pH transitions. As well as providing information on dissolution performance these dynamic techniques provide additional understanding on supersaturation and intestinal precipitation behavior of APIs. The introduction of biphasic dissolution assays with lipid layer has also provided a tool for understanding and modeling the oral absorption outcome of orally taken drugs. He is involved in the OrBiTo project, a large consortium of pharma and academia, which aims to develop Oral Biopharmaceutics Tools for bringing small molecule drugs more quickly through company pipelines. 

Karl has a broad knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry from discovery topics through to development strategies. He is an established speaker at many international scientific meetings and conferences and recently contributed to the AAPS eLearning webinar series. He has over 30 peer reviewed publications in scientific journals.

Role in PEARRL
Main Supervisor ESR 10, Co-Supervisor ESR 6

Key Publications
  • Box, K. J., Comer, J E A., Current Drug Metabolism, 2008, 9 (9), 869-878; Using measured pKa, LogP and solubility to investigate supersaturation and predict BCS class.
  • Box, K. J., Comer, J. E. Gravestock, T. Stuart, M., Chemistry and Biodiversity, 2009, 6, 1767-1788; New ideas about the solubility of drugs.
  • Hsieh, Y. L., Ilevbare, G. A., Van Eerdenbrugh, B., Box, K. J., Sanchez-Felix, M. V., Taylor, L. S. Pharm. Res. 2012, 29 (10), 2738-2753; pH-Induced Precipitation Behavior of Weakly Basic Compounds: Determination of Extent and Duration of Supersaturation Using Potentiometric Titration and Correlation to Solid State Properties.
  • Lennernas, H., Aarons, L., Augustijns, P., Beato, S., Bolger, M., Box, K., Brewster, M., Butler, J., Dressman, J., Holm, R., Julia Frank, K., Kendall, R., Langguth, P., Sydor, J.; Lindahl, A., McAllister, M., Muenster, U., Mullertz, A., Ojala, K., Pepin, X., Reppas, C., Rostami-Hodjegan, A., Verwei, M., Weitschies, W., Wilson, C., Karlsson, C., Abrahamsson, B. Eur J Pharm Sci 2013; Oral biopharmaceutics tools - Time for a new initiative - An introduction to the IMI project OrBiTo.
  • Bergstrom, C. A., Holm, R., Jorgensen, S. A., Andersson, S. B., Artursson, P., Beato, S., Borde, A., Box, K., Brewster, M., Dressman, J., Feng, K. I., Halbert, G., Kostewicz, E., McAllistar, M., Muenster, U., Thinnes, J., Taylor, R., Mullertz, A., Eur J Pharm Sci 2013; Early pharmaceutical profiling to predict oral drug absorption: Current status and unmet needs.
  • Anura S. Indulkar, Karl J. Box, Robert Taylor, Rebeca Ruiz, Lynne S. Taylor., Mol. Pharmaceutics, 2015, 12 (7), 2365–2377; pH-Dependent Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation of Highly Supersaturated Solutions of Weakly Basic Drugs.
  • Box, K. J., Comer, J., Taylor, R., Karki, S., Ruiz, R., Price, R. and Fotaki, N., AAPS Pharm. Sci. Tech., 2015; Small scale assays for studying dissolution of pharmaceutical cocrystals for oral administration.
  • Fotaki, N. Grignard, E. McAllister, M. Taylor, R. Box, K., Eur J Pharm Sci 2016; Considerations for the development of in vitro dissolution tests to reduce or replace preclinical oral absorption studies.