Drug Delivery System Using Polymers (Lactide–Co-Glycolide)

For last decade, we are developing the novel local drug delivery devices using biodegradable polymers, especially polylactide (PLA) and poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) have been developed in our labaortory due to its relatively good biocompatibility, asily controlled biodegradability, good processability and only FDA approved synthetic degradable polymers. The relationship between various kinds of drug and different types of geometrical devices and pharmacological activity are proposed and discussed for the application of pharmaceutics formulations. Also, local drug delivery devices proposed in these works are introduced in view of preparation method, drug release behavior, biocompatibility, pharmacological effect, and animal studies. In conclusion, we can control the drug release profiles varying with the preparation, formulation and geometrical parameters. It is very important to design a suitable formulation for the wanted period of bioactive molecules loaded in biodegradable polymers for the local delivery of drug. The drug release is affected by many factors such as hydrophilicity of drug, electric charge of drug, drug loading amount, polymer molecular weight, the monomer composition, the size of implants, the applied fabrication techniques, and so on.