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.

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