A Review on Pulsatile Drug Delivery System

Abstract

Pulsatile drug delivery systems are developed to deliver drug according to circadian behavior of diseases. The product follow a sigmoidal drug release profile characterized by a time period of no release (lag time) followed by a rapid and complete drug release. Thus drug can be delivered at righttime, in right amount and at right site of action by use of such approach. A pulse must be planned sothat a complete and rapid medication release is accomplished after the lag time. Pulsatile drug delivery system (PDDS) delivers the drug at specific time as per the patho-physiological need of thedisease, resulting in improved therapeutic efficacy and patient compliance. Diseases wherein PDDSare promising include asthma, peptic ulcer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, attention deficit syndrome in children, and hypercholesterolemia. Various technologies such as time-controlled, pulsed, triggered and programmed drug delivery devices have been developed and extensively studiedin recent years for chronopharmaceutical drug delivery. These systems are beneficial for diseases showing chronopharmacological behavior where night time dosing is required or for the drugs havinghigh first pass effect or having site specific absorption in GIT, or for drugs with high risk of toxicity or tolerance. These systems also improve patient compliance by decreasing dosing frequency.