Drug Delivery Start-Ups

As an industry segment, drug delivery was virtually created by two companies--Alza Corp. and Elan Corp. PLC. These companies have since evolved into drug companies, abandoning a significant part of the field to second-generation arrivistes. Such companies that have survived the funding drought for small-cap companies have benefited, Inhale Therapeutics, for example, has a number of partnerships for its pulmonary delivery technology. Alkermes, probably the leading drug-delivery pure play, now has its first approved product. What is somewhat surprising about the industry is how little it has consolidated, particularly when one considers that no single drug delivery technology is applicable to a majority of drug delivery problems.