Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Pharmacy - Department of Pharmaceutics

Oral drug delivery is the most desirable and preferred route for systemic administration of the therapeutic agents. But the biggest problem of oral drug delivery is low and erratic bioavailability, which mainly results from one or more factors such as poor aqueous solubility, slow dissolution rate, low intestinal permeability, instability in gastrointestinal (GI) milieu, and the first pass metabolism by the liver. This, in turn, may lead to decreasing clinical response or a therapeutic failure in some cases due to subtherapeutic plasma drug levels. Indeed, the incomplete and variable oral bioavailability will have its most serious impact on drugs with a narrow "therapeutic window. So, fast dissolving dosage forms (FDDFs) are primarily intended to achieve faster onset of action for drugs such as analgesics, antipyretics, and coronary vasodilators. Other advantages of FDDFs include enhanced oral bioavailability through transmucosal delivery, pregastric absorption and avoiding first pass metabolism. Orodispersible tablets (ODTs) have become a very popular dosage form as they disintegrate rapidly (< one minute) in the mouth and don{u201F}t require water for administration. There are three main manufacturing methods used for the production of ODTs, namely, freeze drying, molding and compression

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