The Growing Field of Nanomedicine and Its Relevance to Pharmacy Curricula

Volkmar Weissig,Tamer Elbayoumi,Beat Flühmann,Amy Barton

doi:10.5688/ajpe8331

Abstract

The field of nanomedicine is a rapidly growing scientific domain. Nanomedicine encompasses a diverse number of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Submissions of Investigational New Drugs and New Drug Applications have risen dramatically over the last decade. There are over 50 nanomedicines approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Because of the fundamental role pharmacists will play in therapeutic and administrative decisions regarding nanomedicines, it is imperative for future pharmacists to gain exposure early in their training to this rapidly evolving class of drugs. This commentary describes nanomedicines, discusses current regulatory challenges, and provides recommendations for judicious incorporation of nanomedicine topics into the Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum based on emerging pharmaceutical and clinical science applications.

Highlights

Significant advances in nanoscale material science during the last quarter of the last century have spurred the
J development of nanotechnology as an independent scientific discipline and its merger with medicine and pharmacy d around the turn of the century brought about the advent of Nanomedicines
There are over 50 nanomedicines (referred to by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as drugs containing nanomaterials) on the US market.[1]

Summary

Introduction

Significant advances in nanoscale material science during the last quarter of the last century have spurred the. This includes products exhibiting a potential therapeutic effect based on their unique nanoscale physicochemical properties such as superparamagnetism exhibited by iron oxide nanoparticles or improved bioavailability and disease specificity with lipid drug delivery carriers such as those that have been utilized for FDA approved COVID19 vaccines.[8] The growth of the field of nanomedicines is exemplified by a rapid growth of indexed publications (Figure 1).

Results

Conclusion