Novel drug delivery is one of the fastest growing healthcare sectors, with sales of drugs incorporating novel drug delivery systems increasing an annual rate of 15%, conventionally; the nasal route has been used for the local delivery of drugs for the treatment of nasal allergies and infections. In recent years, research has established that the nasal route is a safe and acceptable alternative to the parenteral administration of drugs. The nasal route has also been found to be useful in targeting drugs to the central nervous system. In addition, absorption of drug at the olfactory region of the nose provides a potential for a pharmaceutical compound to be available to the central nervous system. The nasal delivery of vaccines is another very attractive application in terms of efficacy and patient acceptance. The use of the nasal route for the delivery of challenging drugs has created much interest in recent years in the pharmaceutical industry. A drug molecule can therefore quickly be transferred across the single epithelial cell layer directly to the systemic blood circulation without first-pass hepatic and intestinal metabolism. The effect is often reached within 5 min for smaller drug molecules. Nasal route is a part of drug delivery strategy that is emerging to be a fastest growing drug delivery system with an annual growth of 11% for locally acting drugs & 30% for systemically acting drugs.
