The rising occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and the increasing number of interventional cardiologists are amongst the prime factors fuelling the market for implantable drug delivery devices. Implantable drug delivery devices provide numerous unique advantages over the traditional parenteral or oral drug delivery methods. These devices can offer localized and site-specific delivery, which is of utmost importance in applications such as oncology and cardiology, wherein targeted delivery may enhance the treatment’s effectiveness and lower its damage or side effects to healthy tissues. Transparency Market Research (TMR), a market intelligence company, throws light on the top two advantages of using implantable drug delivery devices and also provides data about the key applications of non-biodegradable drug delivery devices. The advantages of these devices are poised to augment the demand for implantable drug delivery devices in the coming years. The prime advantages of implantable drug delivery devices include:
- Convenience: An effective drug concentration in the blood is maintained for a longer duration of time by using techniques including repeated injections or continuous intravenous infusion. However, in these treatments, the patients need to be under uninterrupted medical monitoring. In addition, a short-acting medicine may worsen the condition owing to the fact that the infusion rate or injection quantity needs to be raised for maintaining a therapeutically effective drug level. Implantable drug delivery devices, on the other hand, allow patients to take medication outside of the hospital setting and involve relatively marginal medical observation. In addition, implantation treatments involve a reduced risk of infections and complications as compared to indwelling catheter-based infusion systems.
- Automation of Drug Delivery: By permitting complete elimination or reduction of the patient’s role in the delivery of the drug, compliance to the treatment regimen is immensely increased. Patients may sometimes forget to take their medicine, but drug delivery via an implant is not dependent on patient input. Though periodical refilling is required in certain types of implantable drug delivery devices, the overall patient involvement is still much less than with traditional systems.
Non-biodegradable drug delivery devices are being majorly utilized in areas such as hormone regulation, contraception, oncology, abuse deterrence, and pain management, among others. The key application areas of non-biodegradable drug delivery devices, along with commercial examples, are as follows:
- Women’s Health: Transmucosal hormone contraceptives delivery progestin has been introduced into combination products manufactured from silicone, TPU, and EVA. One commercial example of this is Pfizer’s Estring® Silicone Intravaginal Ring (IVR). This device releases 2 mg of estradiol for a period of ninety days for treating symptoms related to menopause. Another example is Merck & Co.’s Nexplanon®. This device is made using EVA and delivers 68 mg of etonogestrel for a period of three years. This device consists of a rod implanted in a subcutaneous manner in the arm of the patient.
- Treatment of Diabetes: Non-biodegradable implantable drug delivery devices present a unique solutions for diabetics. For instance, U.S.-based Intarcia Therapeutics has developed a non-biodegradable implantable drug delivery device, named ITCA 650, which is a DUROS® implant delivery technology, for the treatment of type II diabetes. In addition, the titanium drug-eluting device by Delphor is another example of a device used to treat type II diabetes. This system is also designed for drug delivery for the treatment of hormone growth deficiencies, hepatitis C, and bipolar disorder.
No comments:
Post a Comment