Recent advances in biopolymers for drug delivery applications

There has been excessive advancement in development of new and powerful drugs. Tremendous research has resulted in target specific and efficient drugs. But the problems in administrating drugs to the targeted area still persist. Conventional methods, for instance, intravenous and direct oral administration, are inefficient in tackling the toxic effects of drug as it has to travel undesired regions before reaching the targeted area. Furthermore, only a tiny proportion of the drug is utilized effectively and requires frequent use of drug. The problem can be eluded by designing suitable methods to achieve drug delivery in sustained and controlled way. One of the methods gaining much importance in this field is use of biopolymers those exhibit encouraging results and cost-efficiency. Use of the biopolymeric drug delivery devices not only helps performing localized delivery of drug but also helps in sustained and controlled release of drug at the targeted area only, thereby, reducing the wastage of the drug. The stabilization of the drug against physiological environment can also be provided using such devices and hence, delivery of unstable drugs to the targeted area can also be accomplished. This chapter aims at discussing the need for use of biopolymeric materials for drug delivery, various biopolymers used for the purpose, methods for biopolymer designing, recent advances in the use of biopolymers as drug delivery devices, future scopes, and perspectives in the field.