Modeling and simulation in drug delivery

During the last century, our understanding of the physical and biological processes involved in drug delivery and our control over drug delivery systems have grown tremendously. However, this growing complexity has also resulted in increasing cost of deployment, and traditional paradigms of research have been proven as inadequate. Harnessing the exponential growth of computer power through modeling and simulation allows for uncovering complementary and unique information regarding the process and materials of drug delivery. In this chapter, we review the area of theoretical modeling and computer simulations in relation to drug delivery. The impact of modeling and simulation on research in oral, transdermal, ophthalmic, pulmonary, and parenteral drug administration is discussed. We also focus on some chosen drug delivery systems, namely polymeric carriers, supramolecular carriers, and inorganic carriers and review the recent in silico and theoretical work carried out on them.