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Challenges to Nanomedicine

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Abstract

Medicine is one of the fastest-growing areas of application of nanotechnology and the use of nanomaterials, nanoscale manipulation and engineering is already having an impact across almost all medical product sectors and medical specialisms. While the pipeline of products implementing nanotechnology in some form is already significant with many times more at an earlier stage of research and development, it is useful to review those steps a potential nanomedical product will have to go through before it reaches the stage of commercial exploitation or clinical availability. Considerable efforts have been made to harmonise medical product regulatory systems globally but many differences between countries still remain in areas such as health technology assessment or reimbursement. Likewise, public perceptions of emerging technologies can vary from society to society. It is important therefore for researchers and manufacturers to understand all of these challenges at an early stage of product development and to accumulate the data required for these various procedures in a timely manner so as not to face delays in placing nanomedical products onto the market or in seeking their uptake within healthcare systems.

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