Long Acting Injections and Implants

Book excerpt: Long acting injections and implants improve therapy, enhance patient compliance, improve dosing convenience, and are the most appropriate formulation choice for drugs that undergo extensive first pass metabolism or that exhibit poor oral bioavailability. An intriguing variety of technologies have been developed to provide long acting injections and implants. Many considerations need to go into the design of these systems in order to translate a concept from the lab bench to actual therapy for a patient. This book surveys and summarizes the field. Topics covered in Long Acting Injections and Implants include the historical development of the field, drugs, diseases and clinical applications for long acting injections and implants, anatomy and physiology for these systems, specific injectable technologies (including lipophilic solutions, aqueous suspensions, microspheres, liposomes, in situ forming depots and self-assembling lipid formulations), specific implantable technologies (including osmotic implants, drug eluting stents and microfabricated systems), peptide, protein and vaccine delivery, sterilization, drug release testing and regulatory aspects of long acting injections and implants. This volume provides essential information for experienced development professionals but was also written to be useful for scientists just beginning work in the field and for others who need an understanding of long acting injections and implants. This book will also be ideal as a graduate textbook.