From Molecule to Medicine, the Science Behind Formulation

Jack Xiang is a Formulation Scientist at AbbVie, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A UC Berkeley graduate, he brings expertise in biopharmaceutical formulation development and analytical techniques, contributing to cutting-edge drug delivery solutions within the company’s research and development pipeline.

For the upcoming edition of Chemical Industry Review, we would like Jack Xiang, Formulation Scientist at AbbVie, to share his expert insights on the evolving role of formulation science in accelerating pharmaceutical innovation and improving drug delivery systems.

In line with this, we have developed a set of questions to guide our conversation. This will be featured as a Q&A piece in our magazine, offering valuable insights for formulation scientists, R&D professionals, and industry newcomers as they navigate complex development pipelines and contribute to more effective, patient-centric therapies.

● Can you briefly describe your leadership role as Formulation Scientist? What are your key responsibilities and areas of focus?

● Formulations is often considered the “molecular packaging” step in drug development—our job is to ensure the drug product, especially biologics, remains stable through manufacturing, transit, storage, and administration. Alongside the team, I conduct stability testing under a range of stress conditions to characterize and optimize how well these products hold up. Thisincludes exploring the limits of shelf life, freeze-thaw cycles, temperature exposure, and more.

● What role does formulation science play in bridging the gap between discovery and commercial product development? - Simply put, without formulations many drugs would never make it to the market. Protein biologics, in particular, are very unstable, prone to misfolding, denaturation, aggregation, etc. But with the right formulation, a combination of ingredients such as pH buffers, surfactants, and antioxidants and more, drug products, the precious work of discovery can be packaged and delivered to patients around the world, under stress conditions such as heat, be freeze thawed, and over long periods of time.

● How do factors like solubility, stability, and bioavailability influence the direction of formulation strategies today?

● Solubility, stability, and bioavailability are foundational drivers in modern formulation strategy. Poor solubility often limits a drug’s absorption, prompting the use of techniques like salt formation, nanoparticles, or amorphous dispersions. Stability challenges necessitate careful excipient selection, lyophilization, and packaging choices to prevent degradation. Meanwhile, improving bioavailability shapes both the route of administration and the formulation design, particularly for drugs that must bypass enzymatic or permeability barriers. These factors and more are crucial in determining how formulations incorporate practicality into well designed drugs.

Formulation isn’t just about making a drug work it’s about making it last, scale, and ultimately reach the people who need it most

● What are some of the biggest technical or logistical challenges formulation teams face when working with novel or sensitive drug candidates?

● On the technical side, challenges often emerge during stress testing. Novel molecules may degrade through complex pathways aggregation, oxidation, deamination and identifying and mitigating those mechanisms takes time and careful iteration. The push for high-concentration formulations, particularly for subcutaneous delivery, adds complexity with increased viscosity, solubility limits, and device compatibility concerns.

● Logistically, the most common issue is limited drug substance supply, which restricts the scope of testing early on. Moreover, formulations that are stable in the lab may behave unpredictably at production scale, leading to further considerations needed in buffer designing.

● How has the growing focus on biologics and personalized medicine impacted formulation science and material selection?

● The rise of biologics and personalized medicine has perhaps pushed formulation science toward greater precision and flexibility. Biologics being sensitive and prone to changes that can severely impact their functions, require careful selection of excipients. Personalized therapies in particular involve smaller batches and patient dosing, which has led to more demand for prefilled syringes and autoinjectors as opposed to traditional IV infusions and syringe systems.

● For students and early-career scientists considering formulation science, what foundational skills or experiences would you recommend they build?

● My advice is: don’t settle. Especially early in your career, it’s more valuable to explore a variety of lab environments and project types than to stay in one place just for the sake of continuity or publication. Diverse experiences build adaptability, which is essential in formulation science where no two problems are alike. As an undergraduate I never spent more than a year in one lab (though sometimes it was not by choice), every summer I was looking at research positions and internships, often in several different countries.

This has contributed to me having experience in organic chemistry, synthetic biology, analytical science and much more which has made me much more recruitable than I would have been had I worked in one lab for three years. Also, be willing to learn things outside of traditional labwork coding, data analysis, or learning about other parts of the industry like IP or regulatory. Most importantly, stay curious, be patient, and don’t be afraid to take initiative even when no one’s asked you to. This is a complex and difficult industry to navigate, and it is crucial to be open minded.