High-velocity powder injection is a promising new drug-delivery technique that provides needle- and pain-free delivery of traditional drugs, drugs from biotechnology such as proteins, peptides, and oligonucleotides as well as traditional and genetic vaccines. The energy of a transient helium gas jet accelerates fine drug particles of 20 microns-100 microns diameter to high velocities and delivers them into skin or mucosal sites. This review describes the configuration and operating principles of devices that accelerate the particles, the required properties of the particles, the characteristics of the target tissues, and features of the developmental test methods. Preclinical and clinical results that best characterize the technology and introduce its potential as a drug-delivery platform are presented.

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Actisite (tetracycline hydrochloride) periodontal fiber is a 23 cm monofilament containing 12.7 mg tetracycline HCl homogeneously dispersed in a polymer. This product is indicated as an adjunct to scaling and root planing to reduce pocket depth and bleeding on probing in patients with adult periodontitis. The sustained-release system, placed in the periodontal pocket for 10 d, releases the antibiotic through mechanisms of diffusion and osmosis. A study was conducted in 13 patients with moderate to severe adult periodontitis to evaluate the amount of tetracycline HCl released during therapy (based on residual drug content). Fibers placed in the pocket remained in place for an average of 9 d. Each patient had 1-4 teeth treated with fiber therapy. At the termination of therapy samples from 29 teeth were retrieved and analyzed. The amount of matrix polymer was used as an internal standard for the quantitation of tetracycline, eliminating any uncertainties with respect to recovery or contamination. An average of 31% (SD 9%) of the tetracycline HCl content was released from the fiber during the treatment period. No single fiber had less than 50% of the original drug remaining. The study demonstrated that a substantial amount of the tetracycline remains in the Actisite fiber at removal (about 70%), which indicates that substantial drug concentrations are maintained in the pocket for the duration of treatment.

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