Advanced drug delivery 2020 and beyond: Perspectives on the future.

ABSTRACT

Drug delivery systems are developed to maximize drug efficacy and minimize side effects. As drug delivery technologies improve, the drug becomes safer and more comfortable for patients to use. During the last seven decades, extraordinary progress has been made in drug delivery technologies, such as systems for long-term delivery for months and years, localized delivery, and targeted delivery. The advances, however, will face a next phase considering the future technologies we need to overcome many physicochemical barriers for new formulation development and biological unknowns for treating various diseases. For immediate and long-term progress into the future, the drug delivery field should use time and resources for more translatable research ideas. The drug delivery discipline has to continue working on basic, applied, translational, and clinical research in a concerted manner to produce drug delivery systems that work for patients. It is a time to focus our attention on things that matter. It is also a time to develop realistic research goals and outcomes, diversify drug delivery technologies, and take the collective responsibility for our actions.