CHAPTER 9:Less Common Dosage Forms

In a 2012 market report, 7468 oral products were marketed, or approved for marketing. Injectables accounted for approximately 3000 products. Many medium and large innovators, generic pharmaceutical companies and contract R&D organisations are capitalised to develop and manufacture these dosage forms on an industrial scale. Other commercially important but less common dosage forms, mentioned in the report, included: ophthalmic, inhalation and transdermal drug delivery systems. These will be considered in this chapter. Many other highly specialised drug delivery systems are commercially available, however, few have become commercially important as yet. These less common dosage forms and novel drug delivery systems are generally developed and commercialised by specialist laboratories. Pharmaceutical scientists, working in these specialised areas, will become expert in the development and manufacture of such products by experience. Others may have to procure services from specialist providers, in addition to their conventional dosage form development duties, and should acquire an understanding of the formulation science principles to manage external projects effectively. This chapter will introduce the fundamental formulation principles of these more commercially important, less common dosage forms. It is not intended to be a detailed discussion of the underlying science at the state of the art, however, the references have been selected carefully to provide a portal into the work of world-leading scientists in these fields. Pharmaceutical scientists contemplating a career in specialist dosage form design and manufacture or those procuring such services will hopefully find this chapter useful.