Capping drugs: Development of prodrugs

Conclusion

It is clear from the foregoing, that the development of prodrugs promises to be a very effective method for treatment of diseases in the future. This approach has several advantages over conventional drug administration. Site specificity is central to the prodrug development strategy. Even though at present prodrugs are not prevalent in clinical use, in future there will be prodrugs for every known drug to make them effective in treatment. Drug discovery and prodrug development appear to be complementary for the generation of target specific medicines of future. At present the research in this area is at a nascent stage due to lack of information regarding all the enzymes or receptors most suitable for targeting purposes. As the unravelling of the microbiological details of the affected targets become clear, prodrug development will surely decrease side/toxic effects of drugs and also trigger development of more potent primary drugs.