The field of drug delivery is highly interdisciplinary. This science of delivering a pharmaceutical compound in the human body to achieve the therapeutic effect is complicated yet extremely important for pharma industry. With advancement in technology, practice of drug delivery has changed a lot in the past few decades and still changing.
Novel drug delivery systems like targeted delivery and drug-device combinations are now attracting more and more attention in drug development as against the traditional ways of drug delivery systems based on the route of administration like oral, injectable, transdermal, inhalation, implant, ophthalmic and optic dosage forms.
"Targeted and controlled drug delivery is one of the most innovative mechanisms to deliver uniform dose of medicines with reduced administration frequency and lesser side effects" said Dr Mradul Kaushik, Director Operations and Planning, BLK Super Speciality Hospital. He further said that though at a higher cost, these modes have primarily been used in cancer therapy, diabetes management, cardiovascular conditions and some infective diseases.
Asian markets specifically South East Asia have been slow to adopt these modalities primarily for cost reasons. "However the prices have come down significantly in last few years making these within reach of many if not all patients," said Dr Mradul Kaushik.
Commenting on the same Zarine Khety, headclinical pharmacy and scientific officer, clinical research, Saifee Hospital said, "Evolution of drug delivery and with it medication management has been the mainstay of medical therapy globally since times immemorial. Mankind has seen the evolution and use of medical treatments in the form of raw herbs crushed on stones and just applied topically to the modern day very targeted, nanospecific drug deliveries in the form of formulations."
Market Watch
APAC Injectable drug delivery market is estimated at $ 154.0 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $ 143.1 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 12.4 % during the forecast period from 2017 to 2024, according to Data Bridge market research report.
In another report by Market Monitor, "The Asian Injectable Drug Delivery Devices Market, mainly driven by a growing prevalence of target disease segments such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, reproductive diseases and cancer was valued at $2.1 billion in 2013 and expected to be $4.1 billion by 2018, growing at a CAGR of 14.4%."
Commenting on the same Dr Daryl Tan, Specialist in Haematology and Consultant, Raffles Cancer Centre, Singapore said, "This is not surprising to me considering the population and market size of Asia. With increasing affluence, many novel drugs that were previously unaffordable are now commonly prescribed in Asia."
"The advanced drug delivery market is expected to increase from about $178.8 billion in 2015 to nearly $227.3 billion in 2020, reflecting a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9%, according to a March 2016 analysis by BCC Research. North America leads the global advanced drug-delivery market, followed by Europe. Asia-Pacific is projected to grow the fastest during the forecast period with a five-year CAGR of 6.4%", according to a March 2016 analysis by BCC Research.
Dr Rajeev Bhoudhankar, CEO Bhatia Hospital said, "The pharmaceutical markets in China are growing rapidly, owing to low costs and favourable regulatory environment. The Chinese pharmaceutical market was ranked third-largest (by value) with $64 billion, and is expected to become the second-largest by 2015, projected to grow at a CAGR of 20 %."
Drug delivery systems used in current medical practice
Number of new drug delivery systems have been designed and developed by pharmaceutical companies with improved therapeutic effectiveness of the drug, safety and improved patient compliance with reduced toxicity. Some of the popular drug delivery systems like oral controlled delivery system, site targeted delivery system, feedback regulated delivery system are helping the pharma companies in an excellent way.
"Development of new forms of drug delivery systems has an impact on all branches of medicine like oncology, cardiology, and immunology and pain management. Drug delivery systems (DDSs) that can target drugs to specific b...
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