title: Chemistry-enabled drug delivery (prodrugs): recent progress and challenges.
abstract: Prodrugs can be used to enhance the properties of an active pharmaceutical ingredient or drug, generally by improving solubility and/or permeability of the compound. However, discovery teams duly spend considerable time and resources on structure-activity optimization and formulation-enabled drug delivery technologies to achieve the target exposures and biopharmaceutical properties, when early implementation of prodrugs could lead to an improved drug molecule. The goal of this review is to provide an overview of the achievements during the past few years in developing prodrugs and highlighting the challenges of following this approach.
authors.affiliation: Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences, Merck & Co., West Point, PA 19486, USA. Electronic address: sophie.clas@merck.com.
authors.forename: Sophie-Dorothee
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Clas
authors.affiliation: Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics and Drug Metabolism, Merck & Co., PA 19486, USA.
authors.forename: Rosa I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Pharmaceutical Value Enhancement, Biopharmaceutics, Merck & Co., PA 19486, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nofsinger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000639:trends; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011355:Prodrugs / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011355:Prodrugs