Drug Delivery
Istvan Toth, University of Queensland, Australia
Istvan Toth
- CV - PDF
Many biologically active molecules are very active
in vitro, but never reach the clinic because of lack
of absorption and/or poor in vivo stability. Although
a range of delivery systems is available, the delivery of
sensitive drugs such as peptides, nucleic acid based therapeutics
(including antisense DNA and siRNA), simple and complex carbohydrates,
and synthetic vaccines presents a major challenge to the pharmaceutical
industry. Industry experts agree that approximately 10% of
the costs of drug development program should be allocated
to aspects of drug delivery. New developments in drug delivery
research are likely to have enormous economic impacts upon
the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In fact,
drug delivery research represents a US$70 billion a year industry.
Centres for Drug Delivery have been established all over the
world to promote research, development and training in drug
delivery science. There has also been a focus on realizing
the commercial potential of innovative molecules (e.g. peptides,
nucleic acid based therapies and vaccines) or delivery technologies
that are developed from the centres’ research. Research
in drug delivery is multidisciplinary, requiring knowledge
of how drugs work, their chemical and physical properties,
how these properties affect the drugs in vivo behaviour,
and what could be done to potentially solve any delivery problems
associated with drug molecules. Therefore, drug delivery research
necessitates interdisciplinary collaborations both at a national
and international level.
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