L4- Role of dosage forms and excipients

• Dosage forms


  Means by which drug is administered to the site of action

  
• Requirements for dosage form:


  - drug remains stable- brug is bioavailable- reproducible dose- resistant to disintegration whilst handing- easy and cost effective mass production
• Sustained vs Controlled release medication

  Sustained - slow release over a time period. Steady, constantControlled = Precise regulation of drug release rate in correlation with concentration. A set amount.

  
• Excipient


  All components of a formulation other than the API
• Diluents


  Compressible bulking agents in tablets
• Binding agents

  Ingredients that hold tablet components together
• Glidants


  Flow aids in tablet formulation
• Disintegrants

  Promote tablet breakdown in gastrointestinal tract
• Solutions

  Clear liquid preparations for oral use
• Emulsions


  Stabilized oil-in-water dispersions
• Suspensions


  Liquid preparations with suspended drug particles
• Syrup


  Concentrated aqueous solution of sugar
• Elixir


  Flavored clear liquid oral preparation
• Linctus


  Viscous liquid oral preparation for cough relief
• Dose control


  - pts unlikely to formulate exact dose from powder- high dose (low potency) drugs can be hard to formulate (too big to swallow?)- if a drug has poor flow/compressability it's hard to make a tablet