Drug delivery is about improving the efficacy and safety of therapeutics by getting the right dose of the right drug to the right place at the right rate and time. Approaches to drug delivery have existed for many hundreds of years; Egyptian physicians created oral tablets and ointments, and physicians began to use intravenous delivery after the circulatory system was first described in 1657. Controlled release technologies date back to the mid-1900s.

Drug delivery systems range from gels and patches, through microspheres and nanoparticles, to complex devices such as external or implanted pumps and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

​Read the article here.

Clinical trials are vital as the basis of developing safe and effective drugs, but they can be slow and expensive. The patient burden can also be high - the time taken to travel to the site may be long (as many as 70% of patients may live two or more hours away from a clinical site), and this can be made worse when sites are not near public transport routes. The travel time, combined with the time spent at the clinic for visits, can result in absences from work or school, or issues with caring responsibilities. There are barriers that impact the access to a study for older people, neurodiverse people, people from the LGBTQIA+ community and people from ethnically minoritised groups. All of these can have an impact on recruitment and retention. 

One of the solutions to this could be the virtual clinical trial, also known as remote, digital, decentralised or siteless trials. These have potential to make the drug development process more efficient, more inclusive and more patient-centric, as well as widening the geographic area from which patients can be selected.

Virtual clinical trials are conducted remotely, with data collected from the patient wherever they are, rather than at a specific clinical trial site. The data is amassed in a variety of ways, including telemedicine platforms, and wearable devices and sensors.

​Read more at Pharma Sources.

The development of antimicrobial agents has saved many lives worldwide since the discovery of penicillin in 1928. However, the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites no longer respond to existing treatments, has limited their use. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 4.95 million deaths every year attributed to AMR. The organization regards AMR as one of the top ten global threats to public life. This piece will focus on antimicrobial resistance in bacterial infections. 
​
AMR in bacteria is a natural survival mechanism. Its spread has been accelerated by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobials in hospitals, the community, particularly in countries where antibiotics are available without prescriptions, and in farming. Beating AMR will need a variety of different approaches, including the development of new antibiotics, the use of monoclonal antibodies, greater use of diagnostics to allow precision prescribing, and vaccinations to prevent the incidence and spread of bacterial infections.

​Read more at Pharma Sources.