CRS was incorporated in 1978 as a not-for-profit organization devoted to the science and technology of controlled release. The field of controlled release encompasses scientific and technical efforts to regulate the spatial and temporal effects of agents in diverse areas including human and animal health as well as non-pharmaceutical areas such as agriculture, cosmetics and consumer products, and the environment. The modern era of controlled release can be traced to the development of the first commercially successful oral sustained-release products in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and to the development of controlled release of marine anti-foulants from rubber in the 1950s. It was in this latter field, and in other agrochemical applications, that CRS was originally conceived in the 1970s.
Over time, interest in controlled release has grown and broadened in scope, due to the realization of the economic, therapeutic and social benefits that can be derived from controlled release technology. Particularly, interest in applications in the pharmaceutical field has been a key component to growth in membership in the CRS since its founding. Today, the primary interest of about 70% of the CRS membership is in the pharmaceutical area (including 5-10% veterinary) and 30% in the non-pharmaceutical areas (called consumer and diversified products). The CRS remains committed to serving members with both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interests.
Furthermore, as the science has developed and grown, the mission of the organization has broadened to cover all aspects of delivery science and technology, including increasingly the biological, physiological, preclinical, clinical, and development aspects in addition to maintaining a core focus in the physical science-based aspects such as formulation, processing, synthetic chemistry, and characterization. Our field draws on the expertise of many disciplines including chemistry, chemical engineering, pharmaceutics, physics, materials science, and the biological sciences—biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, physiology, cell biology, and medicine to name a few. Today, delivery science and technology is developing into a key multi-disciplinary field with diverse applications and practitioners around the world. The CRS has as a goal to be the premier society world-wide for delivery science and technology.
