This book is based on the proceedings of the symposium entitled "Di-
rected Drug Delivery: A Multidisciplinary Problem," which was held in
Lawrence, Kansas on October 17-19, 1984. The purpose of the sym- posium
and this book is to focus on the multidisciplinary nature of drug
delivery. Development of a successful drug delivery system re- quires
contributions from various scientific disciplines, including
pharmaceutical chemistry, analytical chemistry, medicinal chemistry,
biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine. The
contents of this volume illustrate the importance of the various disci-
plines in identifying the problems and approaches for the develop- ment
of a rational and effective drug delivery system. Thus the infor- mation
provided herein will be of value not only to the pharmaceutical chemists
who are responsible for dosage form design, but also to the
pharmacokineticists, pharmacologists, and clinicians involved in bio-
logical evaluation of drug delivery systems. The volume should also be
of interest to the analytical chemists who must provide technology to
quantitcltively evaluate drug delivery. Additionally, this work will
also interest the biochemists and medicinal chemists involved in drug
dis- covery, since the drug delivery system often plays a major role in
determining the success or failure of a new drug entity. Each speaker at
the symposium was requested to contribute a chapter reviewing the
contribution of their major discipline to the de- velopment of a
successful drug delivery system.
