Recent Patents on Drug Delivery & Formulation - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2009

Protein therapeutics are used in the treatment of a broad variety of diseases, however, usually they are not available as peroral formulations. Oral delivery systems of proteins including insulin, glucagon like peptide, calcitonin or parathyroid hormone are highly demanded by patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes or osteoporosis. The need for oral protein formulations has been recognized by researchers of v Read More

Transdermal drug delivery system has been accepted as potential non-invasive route of drug administration, with advantages of avoidance of the first-pass metabolism, sustained therapeutic action and better patient compliance, though, its prevalent use is restricted due to excellent impervious nature of skin. It is the greatest challenge for researchers to surmount the inherent limitations imposed by stratum corneum Read More

Gene therapy, as therapeutic treatment to genetic or acquired diseases, is attracting much interest in the research community, leading to noteworthy developments over the past two decades. Nonviral vectors have recently received an increasing attention in order to overcome the safety problems of viral counterpart. Nanoparticles with their special characteristics such as small particle size, large surface area and t Read More

Nanocarriers offer several advantages in drug delivery including increased retention time in the body, the ability to solubilize hydrophobic cargo, and the ability to target specific tissues. These attributes have led to a large volume of research being dedicated to the development of novel nanocarriers and their use in treating disease. Many advances have been made in the synthesis and formulation of nanocarriers. For ins Read More

Transdermal drug delivery represents one of the most rapidly advancing areas of novel drug delivery. Although the concept of transdermal drug delivery has been known since 1924, it took until 1979, as FDA approved the transdermal delivery of scopolamine, that transdermal delivery systems [TDDS] received broad attention as novel tool for controlled release. These drug delivery systems are designed for controlled r Read More

In the recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of nanoparticles based targeting agents for the tumor diagnostics and therapeutics. This is because of their potential to detect the tumor and treat the diseased tissue at the cellular and molecular level. In this respect nanoscale magnetic materials have shown a very promising therapeutic concept and offer a new perspective for the diagnostic and targ Read More

There are many ways to deliver drugs into the body, viz oral (through swallowing), sub mucosal (through buccal and sublingual mucosa), parenteral (through injection), transdermal (through skin), pulmonary (through inhalation) etc. Among these deliveries oral delivery (by swallowing) is widely accepted. In oral drug delivery, many scientific challenges and breakthrough technologies are required to generate novel dosage forms Read More

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