Abstract

Sonia Ninan*, John Wesley I., Kumaran J., Aparna P., Jaghatha T.

ABSTRACT

Oral drug delivery is the most widely utilized route of administration among all the routes that have been explored for the systemic delivery of drugs via various pharmaceutical products of different dosage forms. In the development of the drug delivery system many components play important role. Technological attempts have been made in the research and development of rate-controlled oral drug delivery systems to overcome physiological adversities, such as short gastric residence times (GRT) and unpredictable gastric emptying times (GET). It is known that differences in gastric physiology, such as, gastric pH and motility, exhibit both intra-as well as intersubject variability demonstrating significant impact on gastric retention time and drug delivery behavior. This triggered the attention towards formulation of stomach specific (gastro retentive) dosage forms. FDDS are of particular interest for drugs that are locally active and have narrow absorption window in stomach or upper small intestine, unstable in the intestinal or colonic environment, and exhibit low solubility at high pH values. This particular article gives information about the approaches to design single-unit and multiple-unit floating systems, their classification, applications, advantages and limitations. These systems are useful to overcome several problems encountered during the development of a pharmaceutical dosage form.