FAST DISSOLVING FILMS: A NOVEL APPROACH TO ORAL DRUG DELIVERY

Abstract

Amongst the plethora of avenues explored for rapid drug releasing products, oral strip technology (OST) is gaining much attention. Dissolvable oral thin films (OTFs) evolved over the past few years from the confection and oral care markets in the form of breath strips and became a novel and widely accepted form by consumers. Fast-dissolving oral films are solid dosage forms, which disintegrate or dissolve within 1 min when placed in the mouth without drinking water or chewing. These drug delivery systems allow the medication to bypass the first pass metabolism thereby making the medication more bioavailable. The sublingual and buccal delivery of a drug via thin film has the potential to improve the onset of action, lower the dosing and eliminate patient’s fear of chocking. Formulation of oral films involves the application of both aesthetic and performance characteristics such as plasticized hydrocolloids, active pharmaceutical ingredient, taste masking agent being laminated by solvent casting or hot melt extrusion. Solvent casting being the most preferred offers great uniformity of thickness and films have fine gloss and better physical properties. Oral strips are evaluated for various attributes such as thickness, folding endurance, disintegration and dissolution time. This review describes about the formulation methodology, evaluation parameters and the future aspects of oral fast dissolving films.