ABSTRACT
This section of the book contains chapters describing various systems, devices, formulations, and methods of delivery of drugs to the lung for the treatment of diseases of the respiratory tract, or for systemic delivery via the lung. It differs somewhat from other sections in this book: it was the opinion of the editors that pulmonary delivery in general represented “modified-release technology,” even though the focus is not on the control of release of the medicaments once they are deposited within the respiratory tract (although some chapters in this section do describe such approaches). It is the ability of inhalation systems to deliver drugs almost instantaneously to the target organ, which is the “release” part for therapeutic activity for many of the currently approved products for inhalation. Further, the lung provides a promising portal for noninvasive delivery of drugs to the blood and lymphatic circulation. This facilitates absorption of drugs with slow or incomplete oral bioavailability.
