Nanomedicines for the treatment of infectious diseases: Formulation, delivery and commercialization aspects

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of drug resistant pathogenic strains, including multi drug resistant TB along with the growing HIV and malaria resistance demand new routes of innovation for pharmaceutical drug discovery. Nanomedicine provides the opportunity to develop therapies for infectious diseases with reduced drug dosage and dose frequencies and shortened treatment duration. These combined strategies may lead to an increase in patient compliance with the goal of improving treatment outcomes and reducing occurrences of drug resistance. With these exciting opportunities, due attention has been given to the clinical translation of nanomedicines for infectious diseases applications. Examples are presented that demonstrate how nanomedicine strategies can enable the development of a wide range of therapeutic solutions to curb the rise of the infectious disease epidemic. The chapter also discusses the models for development and commercialization of medicines for infectious diseases, and presents considerations for commercialization of nanomedicines for infectious diseases.