Drug Delivery Technologies at 3M

Abstract

I would like to thank Professor Franz Halberg for recent1y introducing me to the areas of chronobiology and chronopharmacology and for inviting me to participate in this International Workshop on Chronobiology. I have personally been involved in various aspects of drug delivery over the past decade, but much of my research has pertained to controlled release and sustained release drug delivery systems. More often than not, my personal research objectives and those of my colleagues have focused on trying to develop sustained release systems with “zero order” drug diffusion characteristics rather than dosage forms with “pulsed” drug release characteristics. Although it is my personal belief that sustained release drug delivery systems definitely have their place in today’s health care environment, I have learned both from Professor Halberg and from discussions with various participants in this workshop that pulsed drug dosing given at appropriate times in the circadian cycle may not only be more efficacious but much safer than most current methods of drug administration to patients.