Drug Delivery is one of the fastest growing healthcare sectors, with sales of drugs incorporating drug delivery systems increasing at an annual rate of 15%. By 2003, the US drug delivery market alone will be worth $24 billion.

With these facts in mind, Scrip Reports brings you this comprehensive review of drug delivery, describing how advances in biotechnology and delivery technology will become vital to pharmaceutical commercial success.

This authoritative study answers the following questions:

• What are the innovations in drug delivery technologies and how do they work?

• What synergy is there between established products and new drug delivery technologies?

• How will the new drug delivery technologies affect the current and future markets?

• Which companies have suitable drug delivery technologies for licensing?

New drug delivery technologies are revolutionising the pharmaceutical industry – why not let Scrip Reports help revolutionise your company?

The drug delivery industry is emerging from the shadow of the mainstream pharmaceutical industry to become an influential force. Drug delivery companies are now at the forefront of innovation and this once small niche market is now well positioned to become a major and significant driver of global pharmaceutical growth in the 21st century. Products incorporating innovative drug delivery systems hold the promise of rich rewards and exciting opportunities.

Drug delivery systems have come along way from just simple reformulation with limited application. Delivery technologies have evolved into innovative platforms that will positively impact the global pharmaceutical industry in every therapeutic category. To-date, the applications of drug delivery technologies are immense, offering unrivalled opportunities to combat diseases more effectively than ever before. Drug delivery systems can improve a product’s medicinal value by providing pharmacological superiority over conventional products on the market. Furthermore, the right drug delivery system can boost a product’s market value by reducing compliance issues, such as multiple applications, side-effects and tolerability. Drug delivery technologies have also become an integral part of a product’s life-cycle management – extending a drug’s exclusivity and profitability.

The advances in drug delivery technologies have gone hand in hand with the new era of drug discovery and development. Gene based therapies, for example, which utilise drug delivery technologies to stabilise large active protein molecules, will eventually provide novel treatments for diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders to name but a few. Additionally, new drug delivery systems including nasal sprays, extended-release oral formulations, topical creams, transdermal patches, and inhalational compounds have the capacity to expand the market for therapeutic peptides – a largely untapped pharmaceutical market with immense potential. Most of these compounds are either administered by injection only or are abandoned because of poor bioavailability and/or solubility. Novel drug delivery technologies offer new capabilities to revive the market potential for these compounds by providing new solutions to old problems.

Medical practice is not the only beneficiary of these new drug delivery-based products that aim to improve drug efficacy, reduce dosing frequency, enhance patient compliance and improve on their quality of life. The drug delivery companies themselves and pharmaceutical companies who partner them are poised to reap the rewards of the estimated $40 billion drug delivery market, which is forecast to grow to $70 billion by 2005.

Developing new and improved pharmaceuticals utilising drug delivery technologies has allowed drug delivery companies to offer viable solutions to pharmaceutical companies’ key products which face patent expiration, thus expanding product line shelf-life and sustaining revenue for these best-sellers.

Major multi-national R&D and generics companies are fast recognising the strategic advantages of drug delivery technologies, which can be used to reformulate existing products and protect them, in the case of patented drugs, from generic erosion. Additional indications can also be applied to new formulations, which offer considerable economic advantages over the R&D efforts to bring New Chemical Entities to market.

The drug delivery arena is highly research intensive – in this report alone, the collective product pipeline for drug delivery based products exceeds 350 products across 10 routes of delivery including oral, transmucosal, transdermal, inhalational, carrier/liposomal, injectable/implantable, targeted/site-specific, chronotherapeutic, gene delivery, and ocular delivery.

This report discusses all of these product sectors relative to the global drug delivery market. It also aims to inform the reader on the current status of the global drug delivery industry by discussing current products on the market that utilise drug delivery technologies and products in development that utilise drug delivery technologies. The product-related chapters also discuss technological strengths of marketed products and allow the reader to gain insight into which drugs have the potential to become leading products in their therapeutic class. The report also discusses market values, market divisions, provides forecasts for sub-sectors of the drug delivery market to 2005, and details emerging market opportunities.

In Chapter 1, drug delivery is discussed generally in terms of development and its application to the pharmaceutical industry. It documents the many problems facing drug delivery technologies, including biological barriers that inhibit pharmaceutical development and difficulties in developing drugs to achieve desired pharmacological activity. Additionally, this chapter discusses the factors that influence the development of drug delivery technologies, such as generic competition and patent protection issues. Patent extension strategies through reformulation are also included in Chapter 1, highlighting line extensions that can be achieved through drug delivery technologies.

Innovations in the drug delivery technology arena are discussed in Chapter 2. Routes of delivery are detailed to provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each discrete delivery route. Novel systems are introduced giving an insight into the potential market opportunities that lie ahead. The main areas of focus include oral drug delivery, injectable delivery, transdermal and transmucosal delivery, pulmonary delivery, and drug delivery based gene therapy.

Chapter 3 contains information on marketed pharmaceutical products that incorporate drug delivery systems. Products are categorised by therapeutic area to indicate the intensity of developed products for particular disease states; this also allows the reader to recognise unmet needs in the marketed drug delivery based product market. Products that have benefited from drug delivery technologies are profiled, thus providing an indication of the potentials afforded by innovative delivery systems.

Chapter 4 contains an extensive review of over 100 pipeline drug delivery based products categorised by route of delivery. Selected products are discussed in terms of development through proprietary technologies in addition to potential market opportunities for these products. The products are also sub-divided by therapeutic area to provide the reader with an insight into unmet pharmaceutical needs or research focus for future development strategies.

Drug delivery market data is detailed in Chapter 5. This highlights the differences in market estimations and provides a realistic estimate of the global drug delivery market. The valuations and projections are divided by US, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World with estimates to 2005. Also detailed are market estimations by route of delivery. Emerging markets and sub-sectors of the market that are earmarked for high growth are also documented. The chapter also provides and overview of market drivers and market influences on drug delivery development including barriers to entry.

Published: May 2001

Pages: 231

Ref: BS1086E

Price: £595/$1,250/¥143,000

To find out more about this report, please contact Scrip Reports at Tel: +44 (0) 20 8332 8965/6 e-mail: custserv@repsinfo.demon.co.uk or visit www.scripreports.com.

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