MANCHESTER UK, September 27/PRNewswire/ --

"Nanotechnology" is a newly fashionable field but in the world of drug development it is certainly not new, the British Pharmaceutical Conference was told this week.

The first nanomedicines are already bringing clinical benefit to thousands of patients, said Professor Ruth Duncan in her Conference Science Chairman's address.

"Progress in the development of nano-sized hybrid therapeutics and nano-sized drug delivery systems over the last decade has been remarkable. A growing number of products have already secured regulatory authority approval and, in turn, are supported by a healthy clinical development pipeline. They include products used to treat multiple sclerosis, AIDS, cancer, hepatitis and arthritis."

Furthermore, the improved understanding of the molecular basis of disease has led to "real optimism that a new generation of improved medicines is just around the corner," Professor Duncan said.
New drugs and new delivery systems both come under the "nanomedicine" umbrella.

Drug delivery systems are needed to exploit many of the drugs developed from advances in molecular biology. Professor Duncan said: "The challenge is to design innovative devices and technologies able to guide the therapeutic to its correct location of action and ensure that pharmacological activity is maintained for an adequate duration once there."

Nanomedicines already in clinical use include liposomal products for cancer, therapeutic antibodies, and polymer-protein conjugates. There are also a number of polymer-anticancer drug conjugates in clinical development.

Professor Duncan's research (funded by CRC, now Cancer Research UK) led to the transfer of the first polymer-based anticancer conjugates into clinical trial. She pointed out that polymer therapeutics - which was unfashionable and considered an eccentricity in the 1970s and 80s - had now generated promising compounds in many disease areas.

Looking to the future, Professor Duncan said that nanomedicine research is expected to bring significant advances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. "This is still just the beginning. In the longer term, nanomedicines research will certainly embrace the opportunities arising from stem cell research, tissue engineering research and device miniaturisation. Real opportunities exist to design nano-sized bioresponsive systems able to diagnose and then deliver drugs (so-called theranostics), and to design systems able to promote tissue regeneration and repair (in disease, trauma, and during ageing) without the need for chemotherapy. These ideas may today seem science fiction, but to dismiss them too readily would be foolish. The risks and benefits must be carefully addressed to yield useful and safe technologies, but it has been accomplished before, and will be again."

Notes

1. The term "nano" refers to all molecules and devices/technologies in the size range 1 to 1000nm. Nanomedicine can be defined as "the science and technology of diagnosing, treating and preventing disease and traumatic injury, of relieving pain, and of preserving and improving human health, using molecular tools and molecular knowledge of the human body".

2. Ruth Duncan is Head of the Centre for Polymer Therapeutics and Professor of Cell Biology and Drug Delivery at the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University. Professor Duncan was a founder member of the UK Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and is a past Chair of the UK and Ireland Controlled Release Society and the Gordon Conference on Drug Carriers in Biology and Medicine. She is currently Chair of the European Science Foundation's Steering Committee undertaking a Forward Look on Nanomedicines. In recognition of her team's research, which transferred the first polymer-anticancer conjugates from laboratory to clinical trial, she has been recipient of a number of awards including the Pfizer Award, Royal Society of Chemistry's Interdisciplinary Award, the Berlin-Brandenberg Academy of Sciences Monika Knutzner Award for Innovative Cancer Research, and the World Pharmaceutical Congress Millennium Award for Excellence in Pharmaceutical Science. Professor Duncan is also the first woman to be Science Chairman of the British Pharmaceutical Conference.
BPC

BPC 2004 is being held at Manchester International Convention Centre between Monday 27 and Wednesday 29 September. The conference theme this year is 'Medicines: from cell to society'. It includes a number of presentations describing nanomedicines already in clinical use, newly emerging techniques for imaging (from molecules to man) and the rapid progress being made from genomics to patient.

The science and technology that underpins the design of today's medicines is developing fast. At the same time, the demands of patients are increasing and the priorities of the health service are changing. BPC 2004 will examine all of these issues, alongside sessions drawing on the experience of leading edge good practice and the latest in continuing professional development.

Source: British Pharmaceutical Conference

For further information please contact the press office on: +44-(0)161-832-1050, +44-(0)161-839-9163 or +44-(0)161-839-9161 (27 - 29 September), +44-(0)20-7572-2335/6 (pre and post conference), +44-(0)7971-022297 or +44-(0)7958-547727 (available at all times)