New Methods for Drug Delivery

Paul T. Kefalides

doi:10.7326/0003-4819-128-12_Part_1-199806150-00039

As scientists in academia and industry invent new ways to give medicines to patients, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries are promising to develop drugs of the future that are better targeted to a patient's disease and can be more easily administered. A selection of patches, nasal sprays, pumps, liposomes, and viral vectors is now making its way through the pharmaceutical pipeline, and these various technologies may soon render the “spoonful of sugar” obsolete.

To make drug delivery needle-free, researchers have found ways to bypass drug absorption barriers in the skin and mucosa. Key advances in chemical formulation have enabled the development of medicines that are absorbed through the skin or that can be inhaled into the lungs.

In addition to being user-friendly, some new drug-delivery systems have made treatments more focused. With several new techniques, higher concentrations of drugs can be delivered to specific diseased tissue, which allows greater potency and less toxicity to healthy tissue. By making drugs more palatable, researchers hope to improve patient compliance and even to lower the costs of hospitalization.

About 10% of hospital admissions are said to result from noncompliance with drug regimens. “Anything that results in fewer administrations by physicians has significant economic advantages,” noted Mark Ratain, professor of hematology and oncology and chairman of the Committee on Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago. Advanced drug-delivery technology generates an estimated $10 billion in sales revenue annually. Accordingly, Ratain cited a motivation for profit in drug delivery. “What's driving this R and D...

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