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Capability to quantify drug release is vital in many areas of pharmaceutical research. Accurate, rapid and repeatable detection of pharmaceutical agents allows for comparisons between drug delivery constructs prior to in vivo studies as well as identification of therapeutic levels in samples both in vitro and in vivo. Perhaps the foremost scientific method for monitoring of therapeutics is High Performance Liquid Chromatography. This process allows for clear and simple quantification of therapeutic presence in a sample, with an inherent or induced chromophore, through the detection of bound specimen to the utilized column. Multiple drugs can be used through this process and exemplary methods are presented for the pharmaceutics; cefuroxime, clindamycin, dexamethasone, dicloxacillin, doxycycline, metronidazole, oxymetazoline, paclitaxel, tobramycin, and vancomycin. Each of these drugs is analyzed using Reversed-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography utilizing a hydrophobic column. Independent, repeatable methods are developed for each drug. Where necessary a pre-column derivatization is used to allow for visualization of otherwise undetectable tobramycin. In the case of each drug, a standard curve is presented to show the linearity of response for the proposed method within a range of absorbance. This work shows the ability to analyze multiple drugs with a single simple, quick, cost effective system and detection methods are evaluated for each drug with a R2 value of greater than 0.99.

Polymeric controlled delivery systems hold great promise in the field of modern medicine. Such technology has already been converted into commercially viable products in a myriad of fields. Chemotherapy is an example of such an area where constant efficacious levels of drug can greatly enhance clinical outcomes. The key to designing such therapies is the preparation of the proper delivery system. To this end, a series of bioresorbable polyether-ester-carbonate copolymers have been developed, which when combined with a diluent, are capable injection into the body and consistently forming a drug delivery depot. The study delineated here aimed at producing a more effective treatment of a common drug, paclitaxel, using the polymeric carrier. The polymer carrier system exhibited controlled release of paclitaxel both in vitro and in vivo. Drug concentrations were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography and apoptotic activity was confirmed through flow cytometry. Relevant success was exhibited by the regression of tumor size following a multiple injection treatment regimen in a murine xenograft model. This multiple injection treatment shows promising results when compared to the traditional paclitaxel paradigm of a single injection for a period of 3 weeks. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 100A: 2365–2372, 2012.