Summer, 2005 – Newsweek magazine has featured the Viadur implant as one of the best of all new technologies for drug delivery. In the “Future of Medicine” supplement, the editors of Newsweek selected Viadur ---the one-year prostate cancer treatment (leuprolide)---along with other advances like drug-coated stents for the heart, an insulin inhaler for diabetes, and a transdermal system for pain relief. Early human research on the Viadur implant was completed at USRF and other sites prior to FDA approval of the product in Spring, 2000.

In the Newsweek article, the editors state that drugs can’t work unless they reach the right spot. Thus, companies are developing targeted therapies to deliver the right dose at the right place at the right time. The Viadur implant, originally developed by Alza Corporation (now part of Johnson & Johnson), is marketed by Bayer. The matchstick-size implant is placed subcutaneously in the upper arm, under local anesthesia, and it delivers the drug leuprolide evenly for one year.

Details of the implant have appeared on the USRF website since the product was first approved.

The unique mechanism of the Viadur implant is shown in this animation. (5.5MB)

A review of LHRH agonists in men with prostate cancer, authored by USRF Medical Director Leonard Marks, was published in the journal Urology.
Supplement from
Newsweek (143KB)