Abstract

In the recent years, particularly in the last two decades, a great deal of technological and scientific research has been devoted to the development of rate-controlled oral drug delivery systems to overcome physiological problems, such as short gastric residence times (GRT) and unpredictable gastric emptying times (GET), in order to be able to formulate gastro-retentive dosage forms, which will allow the delivery of restricted ‘absorption window’ drugs which are absorbed in a particular portion of the GI tract . Several approaches are currently being used to prolong the GRT, including floating drug delivery systems (FDDS), also known as hydrodynamically balanced systems (HBS), swelling and expanding systems, high-density systems, and other delayed gastric emptying devices. In this review, the current and recent developments of FDDS, including patented delivery systems and marketed products, are discussed.


Keywords:  Gastric residence time   Floating drug delivery system   Hydrodynamically balanced system   Effervescent   non-effervescen