Perspectives on: Polymeric drugs and drug delivery systems

Therapeutic uses of a variety of drug carrier systems have significant impact on the treatment and potential cure of many chronic diseases, including cancer, diabetes, mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV infection, and drug addiction. Drug delivery technology is a multidisciplinary science involving the physical, biological, medicinal, pharmaceutical, biomedical engineering and biomaterial fields. Polymeric systems can deliver drugs directly to the intended site of action and can also improve efficacy while minimizing unwanted side effects elsewhere in the body, which often limit the long-term use of many drugs. In this article, some recent publications on several polymeric drug conjugates, gene delivery systems and polymer implants are addressed.