Recent Technological Advancements in Multiparticulate Formulations: The Smart Drug Delivery Systems

Pharmaceutical research is achieving and focusing new goals in the field of delivery systems, which are helpful to aggravate therapeutic objectives while alleviating side effects. As per current reviews, it has been critiqued that multiparticulate (MP) specifically with low-risk of dose dumping formulations will be much more suitable in context to achieve controlled and delayed release profile. These systems have received the great attention of pharmaceutical industry as they deliver an accurate amount of drug at the right time and location thus increasing patient compliance and economic feasibility. Despite recent advancements in MP drug delivery systems, further exploration of this technology is need of the hour to find out a solution to many of the dose/release/drug combination efficacy related problems. Present review comprehensively summarizes various aspects related to development and features of recently developed MP dosage forms and recent industrial advancements by extensively literature search on various scientific databases, Google, and websites of various associated pharmaceutical industries and patenting authorities across the world. MP system consists of pellets, granules, beads, microspheres, mini/micro tablets filled into sachets, capsules, or compressed into tablets. In comparison to single traditional dosage form, in the MP system dosage forms of the drug has been divided among various discrete delivery entities. Besides this, these are preferred due to their comparatively greater dispersibility in gastrointestinal tract, increased bioavailability, reduced-risk of systemic toxicity, decreased dosing frequency, increased patient compliance, lesser variability in concern to absorption, reduced chances of dose dumping, and accurate dosing. This article mainly emphasizes on technical intricacies and further possible exploration of these smart formulations for versatile pharmacotherapeutic benefits.