Drug delivery trends in clinical trials and translational medicine: Updated analysis of ClinicalTrials.gov database

While the number of clinical trials has continued to grow by about 20% in the past six months, no corresponding growth in product approval by the food and drug administration is seen or anticipated in the near future. Late-stage clinical failures due to lack of efficacy or toxicity continues to be a challenge. The optimization of absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) has improved drug candidate selection and reduced early clinical failure. The current challenge is how to avoid late stage clinical failures. Expanded knowledge of drug target distribution, pharmacokinetics and validated biomarkers will allow implementation of appropriate drug delivery and clinical trial designs to reduce drug exposure to off-target organs such as the liver and kidney and could reduce potential untoward effects. In essence, integration of drug delivery and targeting to reduce exposure in off-target tissues in the preclinical and clinical program may hold the key to increasing the odds of success in drug development. In this update, we briefly review data on clinical trials pertinent to drug delivery in the current regulatory environment. It also provides our analysis on the emerging trends in second generation antibody therapeutics in drug delivery and targeting. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 98:1928-1934, 2009