The increasing research interest surrounding this delivery system has widened the areas of pharmaceutics in particular with many more sub-disciplines expected to coexist in the near future. The purpose of writing this review on pulsatile drug delivery systems (PDDS) is to compile the recent literatures with special focus on the different types and approaches involved in the development of the formulation. Some of the disease conditions wherein PDDS are promising include duodenal ulcer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, asthma, diabetes, neurological disorder, cancer, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. PDDS can be classified into time controlled systems wherein the drug release is controlled primarily by the delivery system, stimuli induced PDDS in which release is controlled by the stimuli, such as the pH or enzymes present in the intestinal tract or enzymes present in the drug delivery system and externally regulated system where release is programmed by external stimuli like magnetism, ultrasound, electrical effect and irradiation. This review also summarizes some current PDDS already available in the market. These systems are useful to several problems encountered during the development of a pharmaceutical dosage form. Thus it is important to develop new drug delivery systems to achieve pulsed delivery of a certain amount of drugs in order to mimic the function of the living systems, while minimizing undesired side effects. With the biological prospective approaches in delivering drugs it is well understood that safer and more realistic approaches in the therapy of diseases will be achieved in the days to come.
Loading....