Biopolymers as materials for developing products in pharmaceutical applications and biomedical uses

Biopolymers as materials for developing products in pharmaceutical applications and biomedical uses

Manuel Guillermo Rojas Cortés, Bibiana Margarita Vallejo Díaz, JAIRO ERNESTO PERILLA PERILLA

Biopolymers have been widely studied for use in pharmaceutical applications. They have been used for modifying drug release, orientating a drug towards its therapeutic target, penetrating physiological barriers (tissues and cells) and protecting unstable therapeutic agents against physiological conditions which are present in a less invasive administration routes. The importance of biopolymers in designing new biomedical devices must thus be stressed, es-pecially when a pharmaceutical substance must be incorporated into a polymer matrix. A new generation of alterna-tives for human health has thus been generated by designing pharmaceutical therapeutic systems in line with the concept of “integrated custom-made product design”. This document reviews the trends concerning using biopoly-mers for designing products having pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. The paper also introduces the elements which should be mastered by engineers for obtaining material which can be used in the health field and tries to provide a reference point regarding the state of the art in this specific field of knowledge.

2008

Biopolymer, Modified release, therapeutic system, biomedical device

DOI:

Ingeniería e Investigación

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)

EN