Vagina: An Ideal Site for Drug Delivery

Exhaustive efforts have been made toward the administration of drugs, via alternative routes, that are poorly absorbed after the oral administration. However, successful delivery of drugs through the vagina remains a challenge, primarily due to the poor absorption across the vaginal epithelium. Modern technology has yielded vaginal drug-delivery systems that provide optimized pharmacokinetic profiles. These characteristics make the vagina an excellent route for drug administration. The vagina allows women to self-administer medication continuously for weeks or months at a time with a single application. The purpose of this communication is to provide the reader with a summary of advances made in the field of vaginal drug delivery.