The paper describes the development of implantable and insertable drug delivery systems (IDDS) from their early stage in the 1960s until the current stage in the 2010s. It gives a detailed summary of non-degradable and biodegradable systems and their applications in different areas such as vascular disease treatment, birth control, cancer treatment, and eye disease treatment. It also describes the development of various implantable pump systems and some other atypical IDDS, the challenges and the future of IDDS. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.