Novel biomaterials for drug delivery

Abstract

Safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical agents can be greatly improved by encapsulation within, or covalent attachment to, a biomaterial carrier. Such drug delivery systems differ from conventional drug dosage forms (pills, tablets, ointments, creams, injectables and ‘tiny time capsules’) in that a localised depot of drug provides patterned release of the active agent with a pre-determined time course. The pattern of drug release may be constant, oscillating, declining continuously, or even pulsatile. The need to engineer different release patterns for drugs of different molecular sizes, potency, stability and hydrophobicity provides the impetus for active study of the design of new biomaterials, intelligent delivery systems and approaches for delivery through different portals in the body. The field of controlled drug delivery provides a driving force for current innovations in biomaterials. For most drug delivery systems, polymers function simply as inert, biocompatible carriers. In other systems, polymer...