Nazlin^R - Transnasal Systemic Delivery of Insulin

Abstract

I recently had a discussion with a scientist from a major “Eastern Establishment” pharmaceutical company in the U.S. The topic of our discussion was the success of this young upstart biotechnology industry. Although we were in agreement that biotechnology allows for a more rational approach to design of therapeutic agents, he argued that, “you cannot make it in the pharmaceutical industry simply on injectable hormones”. Whether or not the economic argument is valid, it is clear that widespread, patient-controlled use of therapeutic proteins and peptides demands an alternative to parenteral administration. The most likely route of administration for this relatively new and rapidly expanding class of therapeutic agents is via the nasal cavity. The highly vascularized mucosal surfaces of the nasal passages, the ease of administration, potential advantages of no first pass metabolism and the rapid kinetics of absorption make the nasal route an ideal alternative to parenteral administration. Transnasal systemic drug delivery has become a popular topic (Parr, 1983; Su, 1986) and was the subject of a recently published Symposium held at Rutgers University in New Jersey (Chien, 1985). The message from this meeting was that nasal drug delivery is indeed a viable alternative with significant therapeutic and kinetic advantages, especially for hormones. However, problems of bioavailability, reproducibility of plasma levels and effect on nasal pathology, i.e., local toxicity, remain to be solved.