Biomaterials for Sustained and Controlled Delivery of Small Drug Molecules

Abstract

The need for attaining precisely controlled drug release has led to the establishment of various sustained release systems in recent years. Biomaterials-based drug delivery has come across as the successful platform to attain programmable, finely tunable drug release with augmented efficiency, reduced side effects and improved patient compliance. The field of biomaterial science is very vast, from material engineering to the applications like tissue engineering, wound healing, drug delivery, etc. The current chapter focuses on the biomaterial application related concepts especially concerning sustained, controlled, and targeted drug delivery. The chapter highlights the basics of biomaterials in brief including the types and properties, followed by a detailed description of the drug delivery applications of biomaterials administered through distinct routes like ocular, neural, pulmonary, transdermal, etc. The next section covers the innovations occurred in biomaterial-based drug delivery including stimuli-responsive biomaterials and intelligent drug delivery carriers. The latter part outlines the regulatory aspects and the significant challenges encountered in biomaterial applications for drug delivery with intent to summarize chief criteria to be taken into deliberation for developing biomaterial-based drug delivery for sustained/controlled release. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.