ABSTRACT
Department of Chemical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, U.S.A.
Uday B.Kompella
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.
Several difficult-to-treat disorders including diabetes and cancer can benefit from controlled-release drug delivery systems. If a drug delivery system can provide some control, whether temporal, spatial, or both, it is considered to be a controlled-release system. The advantages of these products include predictable drug concentrations, reduced dosing frequency, enhanced patient compliance, and cost-effectiveness (1). Controlled-release products can be obtained by coformulating a pharmaceutically active substance with a polymeric excipient that is capable of controlling the drug release. Currently marketed controlled-release products are intended for various routes of administration including parenteral, transdermal, oral, and ocular. While
TABLE 1 Commercial Preparations of Sustained and Controlled Release Products
Implants
Viadur (leuprolide acetate implant): a nondegradable intramuscularly injectable system that delivers leuprolide, a luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist continuously for 12 months as a palliative treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
