Drug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Drug delivery technologies are patent protected formulation technologies that modify drug release profile, absorption, distribution and elimination for the benefit of improving product efficacy and safety, as well as patient convenience and compliance.
Many medications such as peptide and protein, antibody, vaccine and gene based drugs, in general may not be delivered using these routes because they might be susceptible to enzymatic degradation or can not be absorbed into the systemic circulation efficiently due to molecular size and charge issues to be therapeutically effective. For this reason many protein and peptide drugs have to be delivered by injection or a nanoneedle array.
For example, many immunizations are based on the delivery of protein drugs and are often done by injection. Current efforts in the area of drug delivery include the development of targeted delivery in which the drug is only active in the target area of the body (for example, in cancerous tissues) and sustained release formulations in which the drug is released over a period of time in a controlled manner from a formulation. Types of sustained release formulations include liposomes, drug loaded biodegradable microspheres and drug polymer conjugates.
Utoaji wa dawa ni njia au mchakato wa utoaji wa kiwanja cha dawa ili kufikia athari ya matibabu kwa wanadamu au wanyama. Teknolojia za utoaji wa dawa ni teknolojia za utengenezaji wa dawa zinazolindwa na hati miliki ambazo hubadilisha maelezo ya kutolewa kwa dawa, kunyonya, usambazaji na kuondolewa kwa faida ya kuboresha ufanisi na usalama wa bidhaa, pamoja na urahisi wa mgonjwa na kufuata. Dawa nyingi kama vile peptide na protini, antibody, chanjo na dawa za msingi wa jeni, kwa ujumla haziwezi kutolewa kwa kutumia njia hizi kwa sababu zinaweza kuwa na uwezekano wa kuharibika kwa enzymatic au haziwezi kufyonzwa katika mzunguko wa mfumo kwa ufanisi kutokana na ukubwa wa molekuli na masuala ya malipo. Kwa sababu hiyo dawa nyingi za protini na peptidi lazima zitolewe kwa sindano au kwa kutumia safu ya sindano ndogo. Kwa mfano, chanjo nyingi hutegemea utoaji wa dawa za protini na mara nyingi hufanywa kwa sindano. Majaribio ya sasa katika eneo la utoaji wa dawa ni pamoja na maendeleo ya utoaji wa lengo ambapo dawa ni kazi tu katika eneo la lengo la mwili (kwa mfano, katika tishu za kansa) na formulations ya kutolewa kwa kudumu ambapo dawa hutolewa kwa muda wa muda kwa njia ya kudhibitiwa kutoka kwa formulation. Aina ya formulations sustained kutolewa ni pamoja na liposomes, dawa kubeba biodegradable microspheres na dawa polymer conjugates.