Shingai Majuru

Oral heparin: status review.

Unfractionated heparin and low molecular weight heparin are the most commonly used antithrombotic and thromboprophylactic agents in hospital practice. Extended out-of-hospital treatment is inconvenient in that these agents must be administered parenterally. Current research is directed at development of a safe and effective oral antithrombotic agent as an alternative for the effective, yet difficult to use vitamin K antagonists. A novel drug delivery technology that facilitates transport of drugs across the gastrointestinal epithelium has been harnessed to develop an oral dosage form of unfractionated heparin. Combining unfractionated heparin with the carrier molecule, sodium N-(8 [2-hydroxybenzoyl]amino) caprylate, or SNAC has markedly increased the gastrointestinal absorption of this drug. Preclinical and clinical studies to-date suggests that oral heparin-SNAC can confer a clinical efficacious effect; further confirmation is sought in planned clinical trials.

Nanotechnology in Drug Development and Life Cycle Management

Nanotechnology deals with the design, production, characterization and application of sub-micron-sized particles. The popularity and effectiveness of small-sized particles can be extended to broad areas in pharmaceutical, medical, chemical and engineering applications mainly due to their unique properties. The recognition for nanotechnology is well expressed by a great funding of US

Disodium salts, monohydrates, and ethanol solvates

1.28 billion to the US National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) for the fiscal year 2007. Also, it is estimated that the drug market for nanotechnology could be worth as much as US

Disodium salts, monohydrates, and ethanol solvates for delivering active agents

200 billion by 2015 (Breen, 2006). Examples of nanoparticulate drug carriers are liposomes, microemulsions, nanosuspensions and nanoparticles (Mumper, Cui & Oyewumi, 2003). These systems can be formulated into a variety of dosage forms including parenteral, tablets, hard gelatin capsules, soft gelatin capsules and oral liquid dosage forms. In many studies, nanoparticulate carriers have been demonstrated as effective delivery systems for a wide range of small molecular drugs as well as macromolecules (such as proteins, peptides or genes) (Mehnert & Mader, 2001; Brigger, Dubert & Couvreur, 2002). Nanotechnology drug delivery systems have been reported in literature to offer useful strategies to overcome some of the problems associated with drug therapy such as (Mehnert & Mader, 2001) (a) insufficient drug concentration in the blood due to poor absorption, rapid metabolism and elimination; (b) poor drug solubility and bioavailability; (c) high fluctuation of plasma levels due to erratic bioavailability from oral administration. It has been mentioned that one in ten marketed drugs has solubility problems and close to a third fail to reach profitability due to poor bioavailability or pharmacokinetics (Knight, 2006). In drug delivery, small particles can aid in the direct entry of entrapped molecules into cells either passively (non-specifically) or actively via celltargeting ligands placed directly on the particle surface. The diameter of human cells is about 10–20 mmwhile the size of cell organelles ranges from