An overview on recent advancements and developments in gastroretentive buoyant drug delivery system

Oral drug delivery route is the most preferable route of drug delivery. It is due to various advantages of this route like ease of administration, patient compliance and flexibility in the formulations. Oral dosage form has really progressed from immediate release to site-specific delivery. The recent scientific and patented literature concluded that an increased interest in novel dosage forms which retained in the stomach for prolong and predictable period of time has been shown by various industrial research groups. Various technological attempts have been made in the research and development of rate-controlled oral drug delivery systems to overcome physiological diversities such as short gastric residence times (GRT) and unpredictable gastric emptying times (GET) using gastro retentive dosage forms (GRDFs). It is a well known fact that differences in gastric physiology, such as, gastric pH and motility exhibit both intra as well as inter-subject variability demonstrating significant impact on gastric retention time and drug delivery behavior. Various attempts have been made to develop Gastro retentive delivery systems. Several approaches are currently utilized in the prolongation of the GRT, including floating drug delivery systems (FDDS), swelling and expanding systems, polymeric bioadhesive systems, high-density systems, modified-shape systems and other delayed gastric emptying devices. In this review the current & recent developments in the field of stomach specific gastro retentive drug delivery systems are discussed along with description of gastro retentive drug delivery system (GRDDS).