Maternal inhaled fluticasone propionate intake during pregnancy is detected in neonatal cord blood

Dry Powder Inhalers for Delivery of Synthetic Biomolecules

This manuscript provides a comprehensive review of advancements in dry powder inhaler (DPI) technology for pulmonary and systemic drug delivery, focusing on proteins, peptides, nucleic acids, and small molecules. Innovations in spray-drying (SD), spray freeze-drying (SFD), and nanocarrier engineering have led to enhanced stability, bioactivity, and aerosol performance. Studies reveal the critical role of excipients, particle morphology, and device design in optimizing deposition and therapeutic efficacy. Applications include asthma, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis (TB), and lung cancer, with emerging platforms such as ternary formulations and siRNA-loaded systems demonstrating significant clinical potential. Challenges such as stability, scalability, and patient adherence are addressed through novel strategies, including Quality by Design (QbD) approaches and advanced imaging tools. This work outlines pathways for future innovation in pulmonary drug delivery.

Pharmacoepidemiology in pregnancy

Taking a medication is usually a challenge for a pregnant woman as the beneficial drug effect on the mother has to be considered regarding its potential adverse effects, not only for her but also for her unborn child. As medication use is common in pregnant women, by chance or necessity, it gives the opportunity to evaluate the consequences of prenatal drug exposure in real life through pharmacoepidemiological studies. This paper provides an overview of data sources, study designs and data analysis methods that can be used for pregnancy medication safety studies. In the future, the implementation of responsive international networks may be the keystones of drug evaluation in pregnancy.

The importance of pharmacoepidemiology in pregnancy-implications for safety

INTRODUCTION

Prescription of medications to pregnant women is usually a challenge as the drug benefit has to be considered regarding its potential adverse effects. As medication use is common in pregnant women, by chance or necessity, it gives the opportunity to evaluate the consequences of prenatal drug exposure in real life through pharmacoepidemiologic studies. Area covered: Data sources are numerous. Some of them have been created for the particular purpose of assessing medications during pregnancy. Augmented databases enable the study of delayed effects in late childhood and provide information on potential confounders. Each data source exhibits strengths and weaknesses. Several designs can be used to assess the safety of medications during pregnancy. Innovative designs have been developed in order to bypass major limits of classical methods. Expert opinion: An efficient system could follow up each pregnant woman, who had taken a medication, and consider her as a precious information for the knowledge of drug potential adverse actions against the child, who must be followed up to identify long term-effects. The diversity of data sources and approaches of pharmacoepidemiologic studies, the implementation of international networks as well as the improvement of adverse signal detection are the keystones of such an evaluation.