PREFACE 'his volume contains the papers presented during the Symposium on Pro-drugs held at Atlantic City, September 10,1974 under the sponsorship of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry. No serious effort was made in organizing the program to provide a comprehensive treatment of the subject matter. Rather it was hoped that the material presented would stimulate greater interest in this chemical approach to the problem of drug delivery. A short review of the subject sets forth some of the basic underlying concepts and approaches. Applications of the pro-drug principle to an array of antibiotics are then discussed. The remainder of the volume details chemical and biological studies on pro-drug candidates developed in our own laboratories. We apologize for the limited coverage of the subject matter contained in this book. This was caused more by necessity than by choice. At the time the program was formulated we were forced to depend largely on projects completed or being carried out in our several facilities or in those of our collaborators. This was in large part due to the sensitive nature of pro-drug research programs in established drug houses and their reluctance to publicize their early efforts in the field. In any case, the examples have been selected to illustrate the real utility of this approach. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who took part in the program and Naida Jimenez and her able secretarial assistants for their help in preparing the manuscript.
Downloaded by 185.14.195.35 on November 29, 2016 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 1, 1975 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1975-0014.pr001
A
University of Kansas
TAKERU HIGUCHI
Lawrence, Kans. March 11, 1975
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Higuchi and Stella; Pro-drugs as Novel Drug Delivery Systems ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1975.
