Oral administration of medications is the most preferred route for patients to take medications compared to all other forms of drug delivery, and ongoing research in this field has contributed to the development of dosage forms from simple traditional pills/capsules, to disintegrating pills, and more recently to the development of thin oral strips. Fast dissolving.
Oral strips have received increasing attention in recent years due to the solutions they provide to many problems associated with various other drug forms, especially among children and the elderly. Children still often refuse to take liquid medicines because of their taste and other reasons, and of course injections represent a fear that most of them cannot overcome.
On the other hand, the elderly group faces a problem with swallowing due to the lack of saliva secretion associated with aging, which makes taking multiple, sometimes large pills/capsules, a challenge that cannot be overlooked in daily life.
The oral strip is usually manufactured to be the size of a postage stamp, with the ability to manufacture it in different sizes and shapes. Once placed inside the mouth, as it mixes with saliva, it begins to decompose and dissolves completely within a pre-determined period of time, after which the process of absorption into the blood begins immediately.
Oral strips.. high precision
Indicates Researchers This technology provides high accuracy in dosage when compared to liquid medications, in which the dose error rate may reach four times when compared to pre-determined dosage forms. In the case of oral strips, each strip contains a specific dose and is packaged separately, just as is the case with pills/capsules, but it is superior to these two pharmaceutical forms in that it ensures the avoidance of any inhalation or choking problems that could accompany taking liquid medications or pills.
This technology also ensures a high absorption rate due to the richness of the inner lining of the mouth and the area under the tongue with blood vessels, which contributes to the drug reaching the blood directly without crossing the digestive system, which makes it an excellent solution for patients who suffer from nausea and vomiting, or absorption problems in the intestine, and helps This also increases the bioavailability of the drug, which in turn reduces the need for higher drug doses, thus contributing to reducing the side effects of the drug.
It cannot be overlooked that the oral strips are easy to use and increase patient comfort in a way that is not available with any other medication form. Its consumption does not require drinking water, and through it it is possible to overcome the problem of the unpalatable taste of medicines, in addition to being easy to transport and store.
From another angle, the researchers point out that it is possible for this technology to be environmentally friendly compared to other traditional medicines, given that it does not require the manufacture of additional devices or tools in addition to the medicine, such as needles and syringes, or various measuring tools such as graduated spoons and cups that are dispensed with liquid medicines. .
Simple manufacturing methods and great challenges
Prepare Polymers The cornerstone in the manufacture of these strips, as they are dissolved in water to obtain a solution to which the rest of the ingredients are added in addition to the required drug dose. This solution is then poured into molds that are exposed to heat in special ovens in order to dry them to obtain the strips that are cut and wrapped as required. This technique is the most common method for manufacturing oral strips and is called the Solvent Casting Method.
This technology faces a major challenge, which is the difficulty of dissolving drugs that are insoluble in water in the solution resulting from polymers. Therefore, researchers are trying to find other manufacturing methods, and they recently began using 3D printing to manufacture these tapes.
From another angle, these tapes require special packaging due to the possibility of melting if exposed to small levels of humidity. They are also still available to carry low doses of medications, which limits their use with medications that require high doses.
More importantly than all of the above, the methods for manufacturing and measuring the efficiency of these tapes are still not stipulated in the law order pharmaceutical American And other pharmacopoeias. These pharmacopoeias are considered the primary source for learning about all available medications, their properties, and methods of preparation.
Therefore, researchers’ reliance on testing guidelines to measure the dissolution and effectiveness of these strips and other basic tests is based on techniques stipulated in the pharmacopoeia for other oral medications (pills and capsules).
A promising future and ongoing studies
Pharmaceutical oral strips are expected to be more widespread in the near future in the North American and European markets due to the widespread use of oral strip technology and the presence of accustomed to using them in previously non-pharmaceutical areas such as breath changing strips, melatonin, and vitamins.
It is worth noting that there is already a limited spread of some medicines in the form of oral strips in these markets, such as allergy and cold medicine under the trade name “Benadryl“(Benadryl) of the American company Pfizer, and”X gas(Gaz-x) is a company owned by Novartis to treat gases and bloating.
One company has Canadian This year, we launched oral strips containing lidocaine, which is a local anesthetic, which opens the door to the possibility of performing dental procedures and operations without the need for injections.
It is expected that this pharmaceutical form will generally begin to spread further eastward between 2025 and 2028. According to the report “Fortune Business Insights“, the size of the global oral strips market is expected to reach US$16.27 billion in 2028, with an annual growth rate of 10.5% during the period from 2021 to 2028.
With the aim of expanding the scope of research and studies to include multiple drug options, the company obtained “Intel GenXRecently, the Swedish Medical Products Agency (MPA) received approval to conduct a phase 2 trial of the drug Montelukast in the form of an oral strip to treat people with Parkinson’s disease in its early and intermediate stages. The trial is expected to begin recruiting patients to participate in the study in the first quarter of the year. 2024.
On the other hand, researchers at a Portuguese university point out the need to expand the scope of research and development to also include medicines for diseases and disorders. Mental.
