Development of Implants for Prolonged Drug delivery

Abstract

Despite being apopular and convenient route of drug delivery, the oral route has a number ofdisadvantages. Polymeric sub-dermal implants offer an alternative deliveryroute that may circumvent many of these challenges. In this study, implantswere designed using computer-aided design (CAD) software and fabricated using3D printing. The impact of implant design on the rate of drug release wasinvestigated using methylene blue as a model. It was found that drug releasecould be extended from 2 days to over 40 days as a result of changing implantdesign. Future work will focus on optimisation of implant design with the aimof producing degrading polymeric rate‑controlling membranes to further controldrug release and to conduct further invitro investigation with a drug compound.