Targeting Technologies—The Expanding Patent Literature

Abstract

Progress in the development of drug targeting technologies is advancing at an ever-increasing rate as we hurtle toward the new millennium. Examination of just the past three years of the drug delivery technology patent literature suggests that what was previously thought impossible may now be a reality. As one goes through this literature, the breadth and ingenuity of many of these approaches are obvious. As in the inaugural article, I have grouped information gathered from this search into areas of mucosal targeting, organ and/or tissue targeting, tumor targeting and focal delivery. The patent applications described in this article represent a sampling of the work in these areas, with particular attention being paid to a few of the more novel or intriguing claims.The patent literature provides unique insights into the direction(s) taken by industrial and academic scientists in their efforts to provide better and more effective targeted drug delivery systems. The need for novel and innovative delivery designs continues to grow with the discovery of new potential therapeutics which will only realize a clinical benefit if delivered selectively to a site of action by a targeting technology. The ingenuity and creativity of those attempting to meet these challenges with novel targeting technologies is rather striking. In general, though, the pharmaceutical industry, has been slow to incorporate many of these less traditional approaches in designing formulations and products. The rationale behind this conservative approach is probably multifaceted but most likely based to a large degree on the perceived comfort level of regulatory agencies with these novel targeting technologies. Since many of the potential new drug entities in the pipeline of pharmaceutical companies will require targeting technologies, it will be interesting to see how open the industry, as a whole, will be to utilize some of these novel delivery approaches and make the effort to convince regulatory agencies of their safe and effective application.