Re-formulating drugs and vaccines for intranasal delivery: maximum benefits for minimum risks?

The challenges being faced by the pharmaceutical industry in terms of patent expiries and a sparse pipeline of new products are well documented, as are the risks and costs associated with developing new molecular entities. Major pharmaceutical companies are increasingly looking to augment their traditional core expertise in the discovery of small molecules with the development of biologicals (e.g. peptide-based, protein-based, antibody-based and nucleic-acid-based therapies), which are seen as a key element in achieving long-term growth. There is also considerable current interest in vaccines, both in the traditional area of mass immunization against infections and as a novel approach to disease treatment.