Prefilled syringes or peptide pills? the impact of new delivery technologies in designing peptide therapies

The emerging field of peptide and protein therapeutics is responsible for a new therapeutic era. Peptides are attractive therapeutic molecules due to their high specificity and potency. Peptides biodegrade into nontoxic or low toxicity metabolites, with minimal potential for drug–drug interactions and low immunogenicity compared to larger proteins. These advantages are reflected in a regulatory approval rate of more than 20% probability, which is double that of small molecules. The average number of new candidates entering clinical evaluation every year has steadily increased from 1.2 per year in the 1970s to 4.6 per year in the 1980s, 9.7 per year in the 1990s, and 16.8 per year in the 2000s.