Novel Drug Delivery Technologies : Innovative Strategies for Drug Re-positioning

The application of drug delivery is a valuable, cost-effective lifecycle management resource. By endowing drugs with new and innovative therapeutic benefits, drug delivery systems extend products'' profitable lifecycle, giving pharmaceutical companies competitive and financial advantages, and providing patients with improved medications. Formulation development is now being used to create new dosage forms for existing products, which not only reduces the time and expense involved in new drug development, but also helps with regard to patent protection and bypassing existing patents. Today''s culture demands convenience, a major factor determining adherence to drug therapy. Over the past few years, patient convenience-oriented research in the field of drug delivery has yielded a range of innovative drug-delivery options. As a result, various drug-delivery systems, including medicated chewing gums, oral dispersible tablets, medicated lozenges and lollipops, have now hit the market and are very popular. These dosage forms offer a highly convenient way to dose medications, not only for special population groups with swallowing difficulties, such as children and the elderly, but for the general populace as well. This book provides valuable insights into a number of formulation design approaches that are currently being used, or could be used, to provide new benefits from existing drug molecules.