Drug Delivery
SPECIAL FEATURE- Outsourcing Formulation Development & Manufacturing: CDMOs Are Making Their Supply Chains More Resilient & Secure
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin speaks with many CDMO professionals to get their insights and perspectives on the current state of the industry.
FORMULATION FORUM - Manufacturing of Solid Oral Dosage Forms by Direct Compression
Jim Huang, PhD, and Shaukat Ali, PhD, say not all excipients are well suited for DC, so challenges remain to find excipients compatible to DC due to certain physicochemical properties associated with poor flowability, lack of plasticity, flexibility, and compressibility.
PROTEIN BARCODING - Streamlining mRNA Therapeutic & Vaccine Development
Meredith Carpenter, PhD, reviews how lipid nanoparticles have emerged as a powerful tool for delivery due to their low immunogenicity compared to viral vectors, along with their ability to encapsulate and protect nucleic acids and facilitate their entry into cells.
Altamira Therapeutics Announces Collaboration on Circular RNA Delivery
Altamira Therapeutics Ltd. recently announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with an undisclosed company to evaluate the potential use of Altamira’s proprietary CycloPhore…
IMUNON Announces Oral Presentation Highlighting Unprecedented Survival Data From Phase 2 Trial of IMNN-001 in Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Advanced Ovarian Cancer
IMUNON recently announced new positive data from its Phase 2 OVATION 2 Study of IMNN-001, an investigational therapy for the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.…
Rani Therapeutics Announces Research Agreement With Chugai
Rani Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. recently announced it has entered into a Research Agreement on August 13, 2024, for two molecules with undisclosed targets provided by…
Hovione & Firstgene Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance Virus-Like Particle Platform for Liver Cancer
Hovione and Firstgene Life Sciences recently announced a strategic collaboration to advance Hovione’s proprietary virus-like particle drug delivery platform for the targeted treatment of Hepatocellular…
Polyrizon Targets $3.15B Epilepsy Market With Preclinical Studies for Innovative Rescue Treatment
Polyrizon Ltd. recently announced the initiation of preclinical studies for intranasal Benzodiazepines (BZDs), a first-line treatment for acute repetitive seizures (ARS) and status epilepticus, using…
Oragenics Announces Approval to Initiate Phase 2 Concussion Drug Trial
Oragenics, Inc. recently announced it has received approval from the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in Australia to initiate its Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating…
Tiziana Life Sciences Announces Significant Reduction in Microglia Activation in PET Scan of Moderate Alzheimer's Patient Treated With Intranasal Foralumab
Tiziana Life Sciences, Ltd. recently announced results of a PET scan showing a marked reduction in microglia activation associated with neuroinflammation in a patient suffering from…
Colorcon & ASHA Cellulose Announce New Partnership to Support the Development & Manufacture of Barrier Membrane Formulations for the Pharmaceutical & Nutraceutical Industries
Colorcon recently announced an exclusive partnership with ASHA Cellulose, a leading provider of organo-soluble Ethyl cellulose polymers widely used in the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement…
Amneal & Apiject to Expand Sterile & Blow-Fill-Seal Capabilities for Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing in the US
Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Apiject Systems, Corp. recently announced a strategic collaboration to expand domestic production of Apiject’s BFS-based injectable platform at Amneal’s Brookhaven, NY…
SPECIAL FEATURE - PFS & Parenteral Delivery: Innovation Is Focused on Patient-Centric, Smart & Sustainable Solutions
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin speaks with several innovating companies to discuss trends in PFS as well as advancements in autoinjectors and innovations in parenteral delivery.
TRANSDERMAL DELIVERY - SkinJect’s Doxorubicin-Loaded Dissolvable Microneedle Array (D-MNA): A Revolutionary Approach to Transdermal Drug Delivery
Raza Bokhari, MD, Edward Brennan, MD, FACS, and Madison Weisz, MS, explore the D-MNA treatment, highlighting its drug delivery mechanisms, advantages over traditional treatments, and clinical potential.
FORMULATION FORUM - Self-Emulsifying Drug Delivery Systems for Improving Oral Bioavailability of Drugs
Jim Huang, PhD, and Shaukat Ali, PhD, say as more NCEs continue to be discovered with less options to find the appropriate excipients and solubilizers for Class II and IV drugs, the pharma industry has begun to evaluate liquid SEDDS for expediting drugs to market.
NASAL DRUG DELIVERY - Overcoming the Challenges of Formulation Development
Eric Kaneps explores the nasal drug delivery landscape, including the benefits of nasal administration compared with other routes and the unique formulation challenges associated with this delivery method.
DRUG DEVELOPMENT - The Next Frontier in Immunotherapy for Ovarian Cancer
Khursheed Anwer, PhD, MBA, and Douglas V. Faller, MD, PhD, highlight a new delivery system (TheraPlas®) being used to develop a more localized IL-12 immunotherapy for ovarian cancer and review its promising Phase 2 results.
EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW - Gelteq: A Breakthrough Ingestible Gel Drug & Nutrient Delivery System
Nathan Givoni, Co-Founder and CEO of Gelteq, discusses challenges with traditional drug delivery and the company’s innovative ingestible gel platform designed for drug and nutrient delivery.
Bespak Achieves Sustainability Milestone With First Life Cycle Assessment for Pressurized Metered Dose Inhaler Valve
Bespak, a specialist inhalation contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), recently announced it has completed its first life cycle assessment (LCA) for its market-leading BK357…
Silo Pharma’s SP-26 Ketamine Implant Meets All Endpoints in Fibromyalgia Study
Silo Pharma, Inc. recently announced positive results for its preclinical study evaluating SP-26, a novel extended-release ketamine implant which it believes supports SP-26’s potential as…
What are Drug Delivery Systems?
Drug delivery systems are engineered technologies for the targeted delivery and/or controlled release of therapeutic agents. The practice of drug delivery has changed significantly in the past few decades and even greater changes are anticipated in the near future. Drug delivery includes but is not limited to oral delivery, gene/cell delivery, topical/transdermal delivery, inhalation deliver, parenteral delivery, respiratory delivery, capsules, particle design technology, buccal delivery, etc.
The Evolution of Drug Delivery Systems
Drug delivery systems have greatly evolved over the past 6 decades. In the past 12 years specifically, there have been huge advancements in drug delivery technology. For instance, advanced medication delivery systems, such as transdermal patches, are able to deliver a drug more selectively to a specific site, which frequently leads to easier, more accurate, and less dosing overall. Devices such as these can also lead to a drug absorption that is more consistent with the site and mechanism of action. There are other drug delivery systems used in both medical and homecare settings that were developed because of various patient needs and researchers continue to develop new methods.
Drug Delivery System Market Size
The pharmaceutical drug delivery market size is studied on the basis of route of administration, application, and region to provide a detailed assessment of the market. On the basis of route of administration, it is segmented into oral delivery, pulmonary delivery, injectable delivery, nasal delivery, ocular delivery, topical delivery, and others.
The estimated global market size of drug delivery products was $1.4 trillion in 2020. Unfortunately, 40% of marketed drugs and 90% of pipeline drugs (mostly small molecules) are poorly soluble in water, which makes parenteral, topical, and oral delivery difficult or impossible. In relation, poor solubility often leads to low drug efficacy. Add in the fact that many other hurdles exist in the form of drug loading, stability, controlled release, toxicity, and absorption – it’s not hard to understand the difficulties in bringing new drug products to market. Additionally, biopharmaceuticals (proteins, peptides, nucleic acids, etc) and combination drug products possess many of these same problematic obstacles that affect efficacy. These challenges, coupled with the complexity and diversity of new pharmaceuticals, have fueled the development of a novel drug delivery platforms that overcome a great many bioavailability and delivery obstacles. By leveraging these platforms, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies can improve dosing accuracy, efficacy, and reproducibility in their drug discovery and drug delivery research.
Drug Delivery System Demand
The demand for pharmaceutical products worldwide is only going to increase in the coming years, as old and emerging diseases continue to threaten the well-being of people globally. Drug discovery efforts are expected to intensify, generating a large variety of active compounds with vastly different structures and properties. However, it is well known that despite tremendous output of the drug discovery process, the success rate of a candidate compound becoming an approved drug product is extremely low. The majority of candidate compounds are discarded due to various hurdles in formulation and preclinical testing (such as issues with solubility, stability, manufacturing, storage, and bioavailability) before even entering into clinical studies. Therefore, advances in formulation and drug delivery, especially the development of new and versatile biomaterial platforms as effective excipients, may salvage many “difficult,” otherwise triaged, drug compounds, and significantly enhance their chance of becoming viable products. Furthermore, breakthroughs in biomaterial platform technologies will also facilitate life cycle management of existing APIs through reformulation, repurposing of existing APIs for new indications, and development of combination products consisting of multiple APIs.