Background: Delivery of pharmacologically active compounds to the lung for systemic effects is well known and recently has entered a new era with several products achieving regulatory approval. This review focuses on the barriers to pulmonary delivery of biologics.
Methods: Lessons learned from the development of recently approved products will be reviewed to shed light on the current challenges that are faced when developing biological products for inhaled delivery.
Results: The text and tables presented herein consolidate the current data and ongoing research regarding biological, inhaled products.
Conclusion: With this basis, we also review the future prospects for pulmonary delivery of biologics for systemic delivery and how the biological and physical barriers may be overcome.