Innovation is the cornerstone of the drug delivery technology sector; efforts to make therapies more convenient for patients, reduce side effects and differentiate products from the competition have always made the delivery sector a hotbed of new ideas.
The level of innovation in drug delivery technology has increased in the last year. The pandemic has forced the drug delivery industry to find innovative ways of sourcing materials and maintaining supply chains but it is not the only dynamic. Growth of the combination drug sector and renewed demands for non-syringe based administration methods for large molecule drugs has prompted tech firms to invest in R&D.
The drug delivery industry has, like the wider pharmaceutical sector, been impacted by COVID-19. The industry response to the pandemic was to scramble to create vaccines to parts of the SAR-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of COVID-19.
While many of these efforts proved successful with millions now vaccinated worldwide, the focus on vaccine R&D and then production placed a huge strain on product supply chains, including the syringes used to administer the vaccines. For example, in May the Wall Street Journal reported COVID-19 vaccines were being wasted in various US states because the federal Government was not supplying enough syringes to deliver the jabs.
In parallel, there are also questions about the glass sector’s ability to manufacture enough supplies of the specialist materials syringe and vial makers need to maintain production rates.
But there have also been some positives for the delivery technology industry. As well as developing vaccines, the drug industry has been busily checking to see if any products or candidate products can help people suffering with COVID-19.
These efforts – which are likely to continue for the next few years at least – are likely to increase drug industry demand for novel delivery systems (NDDS), according to a study published in February.
The authors wrote “Novel Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS) will be boon for the repurposing of drugs… NDDS will help to develop the improved delivery systems (dosage forms) of existing therapeutic agents and also explore the new insights to find out the void spaces for potential targeted delivery. Therefore, in these tough times, NDDS and nanotechnology can be a safeguard to humanity.”
A separate study suggested use of nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems would increase as a result of efforts to combat the pandemic. According to the authors, various vaccines and therapeutic drugs based on nanomedicine that are currently undergoing clinical trials “have presented the potential to become innovative alternatives for overcoming COVID-19.”
Others have argued the case for using transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS), nebulizers or other aerosol-based methods as routes for the administration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and COVID-19 therapeutics.
Some efforts to combat the pandemic have focused on the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 rather than the virus itself. A study published in Junesuggested new delivery technologies could be used to administer immunomodulatory agents to reduce disease severity in hospitalized patients.
Formulations
Since the earliest days of the pharmaceutical industry, the vast majority of medicines have been formulated for oral delivery. As one recent study put it “oral delivery has been recognized as the most attractive method, mainly due to its potential for solid formulations with long shelf life, sustained delivery, ease of administration and intensified immune response.”
In recent years, innovation in oral drug delivery technologies and formulations has been driven by the need to improve the bioavailability of otherwise insoluble active pharmaceuticals ingredients (APIs).
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