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As Novo Nordisk joins Pfizer in abandoning an inhaled insulin product, what are the implications for the future of targeting the lung for delivering protein therapeutics?
Legislation to stimulate the development of drugs for rare diseases first came into force in the US 25 years ago. Bethan Hughes investigates the incentives and the remaining challenges for orphan drug development.
In this article, Dobson and Kell discuss the evidence to support the idea that carrier-mediated and active uptake of drugs may be more common than is usually assumed and consider the implications for drug discovery and development.
Genome wide association (GWA) is emerging as a powerful new tool for identifying genetic variants related to common complex diseases, including diabetes and cancer. This article reviews recent successes that demonstrate the potential of GWA studies to identify genetic biomarkers of disease and reveal novel therapeutic targets and strategies.
Interleukin 21 (IL21) is an immune-stimulating cytokine that has demonstrated antitumour activity in preclinical models and has recently entered clinical trials. Here, the authors discuss the antitumour effects of IL21 and describe strategies to combine IL21 with other drugs for future cancer therapies.
The neuronal and hormonal pathways of the gut–brain axis can provide new therapeutic opportunities for the treatment of upper gastrointestinal disorders. Sanger and Lee provide an overview of potential points of intervention and the progress in developing drugs to target them.
The development of prodrugs — chemically modified versions of pharmacologically active agents that must undergo transformationin vivoto release the active drug — is a well-established strategy for improving physicochemical, biopharmaceutical or pharmacokinetic properties of compounds. Rautio and colleagues overview common functional groups that are amenable to prodrug design and highlight the wide range of applications of the prodrug strategy using compounds that are in clinical use or are undergoing clinical trials.
