Pharmaceutical dosage forms: Past, present, future

Abstract

In drug delivery, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is delivered to the patient through different methods and shapes which are called pharmaceutical dosage forms (PDFs). Each API has specific physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties which require a suitable pharmaceutical dosage form to be delivered to the body. Pharmaceutical dosage form is important in drug delivery, compliance, pharmacokinetic, transportation, distribution, production, shelf life, effectiveness of therapy, and many other processes which can influence the final outcome of drug therapy. Every PDF provides unique properties, advantages, and disadvantages which result in different dosage forms for one API. For example Ibuprofen is available in tablet, capsule, suppository, syrup, suspension, oral drop, parenteral, cream, and gel formulations. Pharmaceutical dosage forms make an active pharmaceutical ingredient administrable. Mankind has implemented different substances as remedy, various types of dosage forms or drug delivery methods had been used, some of which were such applicable and effective that has been modified to this date based on the needs of formulators, and some others were useful just in their time and non applicable for present time and has been removed from choices of formulators. Also some new dosage forms or delivery routes are being developed for fulfilling the needs of present/future. Usually the PDFs contain excipients in addition to the APIs. Excipients can alter pharmacokinetic of medicine and affect the final outcome of drug therapy. In some cases, the physicochemical/pharmacokinetic profile of an API/PDF is not desirable. Therefore some modifications including change of excipients/matrix or coating are applied. The act of formulation is to find a suitable combination of the mentioned modifiers. These modifications considered as generations of dosage forms. Pharmaceutical dosage forms can be categorized based on their physical state or route of administration. The PDFs have one of the following physical forms: gaseous, liquid, semi solid, and solid. Depend on route of administration PDFs are placed in one of the following groups: per oral, sublingual-buccal, ocular, otologic, nasal, urogenital, rectal, alveolar, dermal, and parenteral. All of these routes can cause systemic or local pharmacological (whether desirable or undesirable) effects. The pharmaceutical dosage forms are provided based on properties of active pharmaceutical ingredient, the needs of formulator, manufacturer, administrator, and patient. In this chapter, it has been tried to present a comprehensive data about properties, advantages, disadvantages, and employments of pharmaceutical dosage forms according to needs of past, present, and future in pharmaceutical sciences and drug delivery technology. © 2011 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.