Drug delivery systems chemically activated

Microelectronic circuits for communications. Controlled permeability films for drug delivery systems. Protein-specific sensors for the monitoring of biochemical processes. Catalysts for the production of fuels and chemicals. Optical coatings for window glass. Electrodes for batteries and fuel cells. Corrosion-resistant coatings for the protection of metals and ceramics. Surface active agents, or surfactants, for use in tertiary oil recovery and the production of polymers, paper, textiles, agricultural chemicals, and cement. 

Pharmaceuticals, for the purpose of this book, means chemical compounds that are used in pharmaceutical production. This can comprise the active ingredient, which is also called active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) or drug substance or drug product and the inert pharmaceutical ingredients (excipients) that are used to formulate a drug product in the form of tablets, capsules, ointments, creams, lotions, parenterals, inhalers, and a variety of drug delivery systems. 

Some questions a formulator needs to address up front are What are the marketing plans What are the potential obstacles to uniformity Is the active raw material physically and chemically consistent What are the physical plant constraints Addressing these and other questions in the early stages of development could aid in avoiding many scale-up nightmares. Additionally, the identification of potential scale-up issues forces the formulator to consider commercialization of the drug delivery system. Too often, formulation scientists develop tablet formulations in a bubble, only to be later handed off to some poor process development person who has to make it work. 

From a drug delivery aspect, the chemical degradation and the biological activity are, nevertheless, major points to consider, and a drug delivery system with a protein drug cannot be applied fuUy until the effects on the protein stability are studied. Whether the changes (physical or chemical) are reversible or not depends on the nature of the changes (25). 

---