Providing a significant cross-fertilization of ideas across several disciplines,offers a unique comprehensive review of both theoretical and practical aspects of enhancement agents and techniques used for problematic administration routes. It presents an integrated evaluation of absorption enhancers and modes for promoting absorption that is especially valuable to those involved with the development of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, bioengineered, and medical products, as well as graduate students looking to study this intriguing field and those professionals involved with patents and regulatory issues.

Organized by routes of administration, the book is divided into eight major sections: oral, rectal, buccal/sublingual, dermal/transdermal, nasal, vaginal/uterine, ocular, and brain. It offers fundamental as well specialized information including current findings on—

· Surfactant use to accelerate macromolecule input

· Targeted gastrointestinal delivery and enhanced absorption of lipophilic drugs

· Permeation issues in rectal absorption

· Chemical means of enhancement

· Carriers for enhanced delivery to and across the skin

· Methods associated with breaching the skin

· Promoted buccal and sublingual absorption

· Emerging ocular, nasal, vaginal, and uterine delivery systems

· Carriers for overcoming the blood brain barrier

Those investigators primarily involved with one specific route of delivery will be able to learn of helpful concepts and find additional stimulation from reading the approaches others have used within and outside their own spheres of activity. Readers are likely to find the same enhancer tested for various administration routes and in diverse experimental models. By understanding the properties and behavior of the enhancers operating within such systems, they may well find the inspiration needed to develop appropriate enhancing delivery methods for new applications.