POLYMERIC MEMBRANES AND MATRICES IN DRUG-DOSAGE FORM DESIGN

This review is concerned with a survey of the role of membranes and matrices in drug dosage form design, and attention has been focused on the application of physicochemical principles such as diffusion and dissolution to dosage form design. In this approach, existing drugs are used and the pharmacokinetic patterns of these drugs in the body are altered by modifying the input pattern. Sustained drug levels in the body are achieved by sustaining the release from these dosage forms. On the other hand, another approach can be used to get similar results. By chemical modification of drug molecules, analogs and prodrugs can be synthesized which have longer biological half-lives in the body than the original drug.