Oral Delivery of Macromolecular Drugs

Recent and rapid progress in the field of biotechnology has resulted in an increasing number of novel macromolecular drugs with great promise for further advanced research and clinical application. However, the delivery of these macromolecular drugs by routes other than the parenteral route is difficult. The pipeline of macromolecular drugs derived from biotechnology presents a challenging opportunity to develop practical dosage forms that could be dosed via the oral route. Given this, the successful oral delivery of macromolecular drugs presents an enormous opportunity. Oral Delivery of Macromolecular Drugs will provide an overview of the innovative oral delivery technologies that have demonstrated success in human testing and will go on to cite the challenges, strategies, and future trends that are to be expected.

Andreas Bernkop-Schnürch is the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy and Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His main interests focus on non-invasive drug delivery systems, multifunctional polymers such as thiomers, mucoadhesion and permeation enhancement. He is author of more than 200 original research and review articles and received the Research-Award of the City of Vienna (Vienna), EURAND-Award (Boston), Best of Biotech Award (Vienna), MBPW-Award (Munich), PHÖNIX Award (Mannheim), Houska-Award (Vienna) and Austrian-Nanoaward (Vienna). In addition, Andreas Bernkop-Schnürch is founder and owner of the following companies: ThioMatrix GmbH, Dr. K. Schnürch KG and Green River Polymers GmbH.