Future challenges for drug delivery research

During the past few years, almost revolutionary changes have occurred in the pharmaceutical industry, partially under the influence of cost containment pressures in the health care domain worldwide. The industry has not yet recognized drug delivery as an essential component for future innovation and growth. Future categories of medicinal treatment will comprise the ff: mechanism-based small molecules; therapeutic proteins and other macromolecules; gene-regulating medicines; and gene therapy. For all categories of treatment, major challenge is to define the optimal dose, time, rate and site of delivery in order to add value to the NCE per se. Pharmacodynamics will have to receive far greater attention in preclinical and clinical drug development.