The drug delivery field needs a well-diversified technology portfolio.

This issue of the Journal of Controlled Release (JCR) presents 12 articles, and all of them deal with nanomedicine. It is time to reflect on the workdone the last fewdecades onnanomedicine, inparticular, in relation to drug delivery. It has not beenuncommon to havemost of the articles in each issue of JCR deal with various forms of nanoparticles for drug delivery. Having such a large number of articles on nanomedicine is a blessing as it represents extensive efforts of drug delivery scientists around the world. This, however, is also a cause for concern to the field. The progressmade in nanomedicine for the last fewdecades is breathtaking. The number of publications on “nano*” and “drug*” during the period of 1986~2016 is close to 80,000 according to the Web of Science. The number of annual publication surpassed 10,000 in 2014. More than 30% of these articles are classified under “cancer”. Such extensive publication indicates widespread training of the next generation of scientists in nanomedicine throughout the world. This seemingly impressive output, however, needs to be viewed in light of the ultimate goal of doing research with nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems. Many agree that it may be too early to expect the clinically effective formulations on the market resulting from nanotechnology. As described in a recent review article in JCR [1], none of the formulations on tumor-targeted nanomedicine-based therapeutics under clinical studies have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Doxil® and Abraxane® have been routinely cited as examples of nanotechnologybased products, but crediting nanomedicine for both products is like giving credit to a general who fought in the Vietnam War for the victory in the Second World War. This brings a cause of concern on what and how we do in the nanotechnology-based drug delivery research. Currently, by far the majority of the nanomedicine research has been focused on tumor-targeted drug delivery. The top-10 causes of death in the United States include diseases of the heart, malignant neoplasms, chronic lower respiratory diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes mellitus, influenza, and pneumonia [2]. Yet, almost all nanomedicine research has been focused on tumortargeted drug delivery. A simple question arises, “Is nanomedicine useful only for tumor-targeted drug delivery?” To answer this question, one review article in this issue deals with the potential benefit of treating Alzheimer's disease using polymeric nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles, liposomes, nanoemulsions, microemulsions and dendrimers [3]. It may be the time to critically review what has been done with nanomedicine, and change the course of the future research as necessary. As all investors know, it is not wise to place all your eggs in one basket. Supporting research is an investment for the future, and it will be prudent to pursue other drug delivery technologies to tackle various diseases. The scientists’ invisible gorilla syndrome is larger than it seems [4]. When we keep rationalizing what we are doing, we miss the real opportunities of finding something really new. On an individual level, this may not be a big deal, but on a societal level, not to mention on the global level, the consequences may be unimaginable.