Getting drugs where they are needed

Drug delivery - principles and applications 
Binghe Wang, Teruna Siahaan and Richard Soltero
Chichester, UK | John Wiley | 2005 | 464pp | ?54.50 (HB) | ISBN 0471474894
Reviewed by Michael Threadgill 

Drug delivery means different things to different scientists working in drug design and drug development through to clinical use of a new medicine. It can mean simply tabletting or injectable formulations. It can mean more sophisticated physical drug delivery systems capable of, for example, sustained release. It can also be broadened into consideration of drug metabolism, prodrugs and delivery of large biomolecules (proteins and genes). 

This book aims to address all of these expectations in a concise and affordable volume, starting with the premise that ’...one has to start considering the delivery properties of a [new chemical entity] at the design stage’.  

Does it succeed in its aim? The answer is mostly yes. The contributors have presented much diverse and relevant material in a concise but highly readable text. The novice (or not-so-novice) medicinal chemist can use it to move beyond the confines of the Lipinski ’Rule of Five’. It is a good broad introduction for the newcomer to formulation science and it will remind those who promote therapeutic biomacromolecules of the need to deliver them safely and selectively to their targets. The book is copiously referenced, adding to its value for those who wish to read further. 

One small criticism is the focus of chapter one on commercial goals, rather than on science. Despite this chapter, I recommend this well presented and well written book to final-year undergraduates in pharmacy, to postgraduate students in medicinal chemistry and formulation science and to professional researchers in any part of the continuum of sciences that is drug discovery.