Development Potential of Innovative Drug Delivery Systems as Exemplified by Metal–Organic Frameworks (Bibliometric and Patent Analysis)

INTRODUCTION. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as novel drug delivery systems are a promising area of research, primarily due to their potential for targeted drug delivery. Over the past few years, there have been numerous publications on the development of novel carriers for drug delivery, and intellectual property rights for these carriers have been secured through patents.

AIM. This study aimed to analyse the global practices in the use of MOFs as experimental drug delivery systems in order to assess the applicability of MOFs in the pharmaceutical industry and evaluate the readiness of existing technologies for practical application.

DISCUSSION. A comprehensive patent search was conducted to identify MOF-based drug delivery systems. As a result, the author formed a collection of 890 patents and used 442 patents that were active at the time of the study for further research. The author examined the geography of patenting and identified the most active patent holders of recent years. Furthermore, the research classified medicines loaded into MOFs, with an additional detailed analysis of MOF loading with antitumour agents as the most developed area. The analysis of antitumour agents considered examples of combination therapies using MOFs. In addition, this study characterised MOFs loaded with prodrugs and bioactive molecules.

CONCLUSIONS. The patent landscape, dominated by educational institutions, reflects a limited amount of preclinical data and a lack of significant commercial interest in MOF-based drug delivery systems. Key barriers to the development of MOF-based drug delivery systems are the toxicity of materials, the challenges associated with biocompatibility and loading efficiency, and the need for clinical trials to confirm the safety and effectiveness of MOFs as drug delivery systems.

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