Drug delivery systems for the future

Parenteral drug delivery systems have the potential to make drugs both safer and more effective. While research in this field has been active for over 30 years, the current fiscal constraints of health care delivery add a greater degree of urgency to finding a working system. The three competing technologies currently under development include prodrug or zymogen-like systems, simple soluble macromolecular systems, and complex particulate multicomponent systems. In this review, the advantages, disadvantages, and areas for further development of these three basic technology systems are compared and contrasted; the biophysical constraints are considered; and a model solution system using surface modified nanocrystalline ceramics is described.