EDITORIAL: NOVEL DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEMS

Abstract

The present issue of the journal carries a review article on vaginal drug delivery systems which prompted the editor to base the editorial on this topic. Drug delivery technologies form a very rapidly growing sector of the pharmaceutical industry. There are several reasons for this. The oral and parenteral routes of drug administration have several shortcomings and these provide the impetus for the search for better delivery systems to improve bioavailability, control the rate at which drug is delivered, target specific sites in the body and in some cases avoid the first pass effect. It is also possible using the novel drug delivery systems (NDDS) to mimic the circadian rhythm so that the drug is delivered at desired times, for example in the morning. Novel drug delivery systems can improve patient compliance. Lastly it is common for research based pharmaceutical firms to prolong their hold on innovator drugs after expiry of the patent by use of NDDS. Common NDDS make use of depot, transdermal and transmucosal technologies. Use of liposomes and monoclonal antibodies to target specific sites in the body has been attempted.