QbD-Steered Systematic Development
of Drug Delivery Nanoconstructs: Vital
Precepts, Retrospect and Prospects
18
Bhupinder Singh, Teenu Sharma, Ranjot Kaur, Sumant Saini,
Ripandeep Kaur, and Sarwar Beg
Abstract
Nanostructured systems provide immense advantages not only in regard to
delivery and release of drugs but also in their targeting potential. Such drug
nanoconstructs either can be modified for receptor-mediated and site-specific
targeting or can be used to regulate release of drugs, widely ranging from
insoluble to highly soluble molecules, proteins and peptides to monoclonal
antibodies, genes and small RNA. Nanoscale drug delivery systems can not
only be fine-tuned for desired drug release kinetics and biodistribution but can
also minimize the toxic effects, thereby enhancing the therapeutic index of a
given drug. The domain of developing nanostructured drug delivery formulations
has lately witnessed an enormous paradigm shift towards their methodical devel-
opment. Promulgation of Quality-by-Design (QbD) guidance documents by the
WHO, the US-FDA and other regulatory bodies has evidently influenced the
manufacturing approach of such drug products, furnishing comprehensive under-
standing of the consequent drug products and pharmaceutical processes. Lately, a
scientific approach, christened by the authors as “Formulation by Design (FbD)”,
has been in vogue, devoted wholly to QbD-steered development of drug products.
FbD strategy targets to harvest novel and cutting-edge systems utilizing thrifty
resources of developmental time, manpower, materials and finances. A diversity
of drug nanoconstructs has since been developed efficaciously as per FbD
principles and testified in literature. The present manuscript tends to furnish
coherent perspectives on the FbD terminology, methodology and applicability
in developing several wide-ranging nanoconstructs, providing their contemporary
updates from their academic, industrial and regulatory perspectives.
B. Singh (*) · T. Sharma · R. Kaur · S. Saini · R. Kaur · S. Beg
Centre of Excellence in Nano Biomedical Applications, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
e-mail: bsbhoop@yahoo.com; bsbhoop@pu.ac.in
# The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte
Ltd. 2022
R. C. Sobti, N. S. Dhalla (eds.), Biomedical Translational Research,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9232-1_18
315