Hadar Zaman
Developing new techniques to overcome poor solubility in drug development remains a challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. It is estimated that up to 40% of newly discovered chemical entities are insoluble. This has led industry to turn to new approaches such as nanotechnology to help overcome solubility. Nanotechnology based drug delivery systems have been associated with improving therapeutic activity and minimising undesirable side effects of drugs. Nanotechnology is an emerging field that has the potential to change the way illnesses are treated and drugs delivered. Despite enthusiasm amongst formulation researchers that nanotechnology could be the answer to improving solubility and deliverability of drugs, concerns regarding toxicology and long term effects of nanomaterial on the body need to be investigated further. This review describes advance drug delivery systems such as liposomes, dendrimers and polymeric micelles which have been explored as drug delivery vehicles and provides an overview of each system.