Novel delivery systems put new life into peptides

At the moment very few peptides in unmodified chemical form are used as drugs, but advances in drug delivery technology will revive their development as therapeutic agents, says a new report from Urch Publishing. The lack of peptide drugs in the present drug armoury is due to their poor stability in the gastrointestinal and circulatory systems, says the report, Opportunities in Drug Delivery - Identifying Hot Technologies, Companies and Markets. Peptides are rapidly broken down by intrinsic peptidases and proteases, requiring them to be administered intravenously, while their short half-life in the circulation means they must be injected at least daily. According to the report, there are at least 80 peptides in various stages of clinical trials for a wide range of indications and a further 60 candidates are in late-stage pre-clinical trials. Some 50 companies have peptides in clinical trials and a further 25-30 companies have peptides in late pre-clinical evaluation. Most of those in clinical trials are administered by injection but a number of companies are reported to be investigating alternative administration routes. Many of these early-stage products will serve at this time as prototypes for development of more active compounds. With most of the top-selling drugs already having been targeted for a wide range of delivery systems, the reportÕs author Dr Brian Minter believes that drug delivery companies will need to focus their technology increasingly on new chemical entities in r&d. Of the companies profiled in the report, some 25 have developed novel technologies for the delivery of peptides, polypeptides and proteins. 'There are considerable opportunities for drug delivery companies to collaborate with companies developing peptides and macromolecules including oligonucleotides,' he said.