Drug Delivery Systems

Over the past 60 years of development, biomaterials have demonstrated outstanding versatility to ensure controlled, reproducible drug delivery. These drug delivery systems (DDS) have enhanced and/or enabled superior delivery for both traditional small molecule drugs and new classes of drugs, such as nucleic acids and proteins, which suffer from delivery challenges associated with instability and poor tissue localization. This chapter overviews DDS development, first by delving into historical perspectives and motivations for the continuous evolution of DDS from macro- to nano-scale followed by summaries of various drug delivery routes and challenges, design and formulation concepts, and regulatory considerations. Finally, notable developments in DDS-mediated disease treatments to date are detailed, and perspectives for future opportunities driven by innovations in biomaterials development are offered.