Magnetic Separation: Industrial and Lab Scale Applications

Bio-distribution of pharmaceuticals always faces a big challenge: Unspecific, evenly
distribution of the drugs all over the body. This requires a large amount of the dose
to get enough of it to the target which also brings a side effect of the non-specific
toxicity in healthy sectors. Among other drug targeting methods, magnetic targeting
offers one of the most viable solutions to the targeting problem (Torchilin 2000
Europ J Pharm). To our knowledge, first applications in magnetic drug targeting
date back to late 1970s (Mosbach 1979 and Senyei 1978, Widder 1978).
For a successful delivery, a carrier must also be fully controllable. Aggregation,
clogging or intrinsic, permanent magnetic behavior is completely unacceptable.
Superparamagnetic iron oxides, therefore, offer both requirements for being an
excellent shuttle for a successful drug delivery. Figure 12 explains how a
magnetically targeted carrier would work.