Welcome to the Society for Medicines Research meeting, Improving Medicines Through Drug Delivery, held at the National Heart and Lung Institute, London, on Thursday July 5, 2001.

Drug delivery is increasingly becoming a central technology in the research and development of better medicines. This is so for at least three reasons. First, new drugs are being derived from complex biological molecules that are not readily amenable for oral delivery. Second, improved medicine is recognised as requiring better dosing regimens for the patient. Both compliance and preference are improved by reduced dosing frequency and it is rare for new products to require three times daily administration. Lastly, drug delivery technology has come a long way in the past 20 years, beyond controlled release pharmaceutics to polymer conjugates and dry powder inhaled proteins.

From inhaled delivery of medications for systemic action, to improved targeting of cytotoxic agents, this conference has relevance for today's and tomorrow's therapies. While previous generations of pharmaceutical decisions reverted to the medicinal chemist to solve poor bioavailability or half-life, today's drug development professionals are able to employ a host of new technologies to bring otherwise unpromising drug candidates to the market in a more patient-acceptable form. In a timely fashion, this conference brings together some of the world's most senior opinion leaders and researchers in drug delivery to explain what has been happening recently in the field and what this technology can bring for tomorrow's medicines.

David Cavalla
Society for Medicines Research
www.socmr.org