What are the implications of nanomedicine for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies?
It’s happening, and if you’re a pharmaceutical or biotech company you need to know about it. Pharmaceutical companies have put a lot of drugs on the shelf because they didn’t pass solubility tests. If you could put a drug inside a nanoparticle you might overcome solubility problems. You wouldn’t have to keep making new drugs because you’ve got this whole closet full of ones that you’ve put aside. And if you could target delivery, it’s likely that you could overcome toxicity issues. Wouldn’t it be great if when you’re trying to do a cardiac drug you don’t have to worry about kidney or liver toxicity? That’s the promise of nanomedicine. It remains to be seen how much of the promise gets delivered. • Cecilia Haberzettl, founder and president of TechnoMed Strategic Partners, recently wrote a paper on nanomedicine in Nanotechnology. You can contact her at haberzettlc@worldnet.att.net.
