Lipid‐Based Nano‐Delivery for Oral Administration of Poorly Water Soluble Drugs (PWSDs): Design, Optimization and in vitro Assessment

Currently, more than 90% of compounds identified are water insoluble and or poorly water soluble, which is a bottle neck in the development of many new drug candidates. These poorly soluble drug molecules are difficult to formulate using conventional approaches and are associated with numerous formulation‐related performance issues. Formulating these compounds using lipid‐based systems is one of the rapidly growing interests and suitable drug delivery strategies. Lipid formulations such as self‐ emulsifying/microemulsifying/nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDS/ SMEDDS/SNEDDS) have been attempted in many researches to improve the bioavail‐ ability and dissolution rate for their better dispersion properties. One of the greatest advantages of incorporating the poorly soluble drug into such formulation products is their spontaneous emulsion and or microemulsion/nanoemulsion formation in aqueous media. The performance and ongoing advances in manufacturing technologies have rapidly introduced lipid‐based drug formulations as commercial products into the marketplace with several others in clinical development. The current chapter aims to present the characteristics feature, development and utilization of oral lipid‐based nanoformulations within the drug delivery regime. The content of the chapter also provides an insight into the in vitro evaluation of lipid‐based nanosystems and their limitations.