ABSTRACT
Polymers, the most versatile class of materials, have changed our day-to-day lives over the past several decades. However, the distinction between temporary and permanent biomedical applications of polymers was made only 30 years ago. The amalgamation of polymer science with pharmaceutical science led to a step change in the design and development of novel drug delivery systems (DDS). Drug delivery refers to approaches, formulations, technologies and systems for transporting the pharmaceutical compound in the body to achieve its desired therapeutic effect safely and effectively [1,2]. A DDS is based on interdisciplinary approaches that combine polymer science, pharmaceutics, bioconjugate chemistry and molecular biology, while aiming at new ideas on controlling specic pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, non-specic toxicity and immunogenicity and improving biorecognition and efcacy [3]. Today, around 60 million patients are beneting across the world from advanced DDS by receiving safer and more effective doses of medicines that are needed to ght a variety of human diseases and disorders [4]. In general, the nature and the low molecular weight of conventional therapeutic agents confer the capacity to distribute the agent uniformly across the body. However, this form of indiscriminate distribution leads to a low drug concentration at the site of the required action, side effects and a greater risk of the need for higher doses of drug to bring about a satisfactory pharmacological response. A short half-life and rapid renal clearance of the low-molecular-weight compounds, along with other factors such as protein binding, lipophilicity and ionizability, lead to a requirement of frequent administration to achieve the therapeutic effect, and high drug dosage with attendant problems [5].
