Microfluidics as a Tool for the Synthesis of Advanced Drug Delivery Systems

Advanced drug delivery systems hold great potential for the diagnosis and treatment of several diseases, and the benefits of nanomedicine-based products in healthcare have recently started to crystallize. Yet, their translation into clinical applications is still considered to be slow, mainly due to high batch-to-batch variation, complexity of preparation, high costs, and compromised scale-up feasibility. Considering the impact that mixing kinetics play on the properties of nanomedicines, microfluidics emerged as a technique to foster the preparation of micro- and nanoparticles with precisely controlled features, such as narrow size distribution, high homogeneity and reproducibility, high drug encapsulation efficiency, and enhanced scale-up feasibility. This chapter provides an overview on recent advances in microfluidic-assisted particle production. The basic principles of flow patterns and regimes are reviewed, as well as the materials and geometries used for the preparation of microfluidic devices. The impact of different parameters of the microfluidic setup on the physicochemical properties of the formulations is also discussed, and some of the most relevant micro- and nanoparticle technologies are reviewed. Possibilities for scale-up and the introduction of microfluidics in industrial settings are also briefly addressed.