The 140th Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Kyoto)

Organizers: Akira Yamamoto (Kyoto Pharmaceutical Univ), Shingo Ito (Fac Life Sci, Kumamoto Univ)

Recently, much attention has been focused on the use of macromolecular drugs instead of low molecular weight drugs. Among these macromolecular drugs, peptide and protein drugs are one of the typical macromolecular drugs. However, the clinical administration of peptide and protein drugs is presently limited to administration by injection. However, such frequent administration subjects the patients to considerable pain, and there is also the possibility of the manifestation of serious side effects. Therefore, various approaches have been examined to overcome the delivery problems of these poorly absorbed drugs. These approaches include (1) to use additives such as absorption enhancers and protease inhibitors, (2) to modify the chemical structure of drugs to produce prodrugs and analogues, and (3) to apply dosage forms to these poorly absorbed drugs, (4) to develop a novel administration method for these drugs that can serve as an alternative to oral and injection administration. Many researchers have examined these approaches and demonstrated that intestinal and transmucosal absorption of various poorly absorbed drugs could be improved by using these approaches. In this symposium, four researchers have been invited and they will give us useful approaches to overcome the delivery problems of peptide and protein drugs.