Pulsatile Drug Delivery System: An Overview

Pulsatile drug delivery systems (PDDS) are gaining importance as they deliver a drug at specific time as per the pathophysiological need of the disease, resulting in improved therapeutic efficacy as well as compliance. Diseases wherein PDDS are promising include asthma, peptic ulcer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, attention deficit syndrome in children, and hypercholesterolemia. These delivery systems can be classified into time controlled wherein the drug release is governed primarily by the delivery system; stimuli induced in which release is controlled by a stimuli, like the pH or enzymes present in the intestinal tract or enzymes present in the drug delivery system and externally regulated system where release is programmed by external stimuli like magnetism, ultrasound, electrical effect and irradiation. The current article focuses on the review of literature concerning the disease requiring PDDS, methodologies involved in the existing systems, recent update and product currently available in the market.