Fast disintegrating tablets (FDTs) are solid unit dosage forms, which disintegrate or dissolve rapidly in the mouth without chewing and water. A fast-dissolving drug delivery system, in most cases, is a tablet that dissolves or disintegrates quickly in the oral cavity upon the contact with saliva, resulting in solution or suspension of the administered medicine.
[wp_ad_camp_4]FDT dosage forms, also commonly known as fast melt, quick melt, orally disintegrating tablets, and orodispersible systems, have the unique property of disintegrating the tablet in the mouth in seconds.
The processes used to manufacture fast disintegrating tablets include loose compression tabletting, a process which is not very different than the manufacturing method used for traditional tablets and lyophilization processes. In loose compression, FDTs are compressed at much lower forces (4 – 20 kN) than traditional tablets. Lyophilized ODT formulations may use proprietary technologies but can produce a tablet that has a faster disintegration rate, for example the Zydis FDT typically dissolves in the mouth in less than 5 seconds without water.
In Zydis technology, the solution or suspension of drug in water is poured in preformed blisters (providing shape to the tablet) and passing them to a specially designed cryogenic freezing process to control the size of ice crystals which ensures that the tablet is having porous matrix for rapid disintegration. FDT formulations obtained by some of these technologies have sufficient mechanical strength, quick disintegration/dissolution in the mouth. Many drugs can be incorporated in FDT especially unpalatable drugs.
There are some salient features of Fast Dissolving Drug Delivery System which includes-
- Ease of administration for patients who are mentally ill, disabled and uncooperative.
- Requires no water
- Quick disintegration and dissolution of the dosage form.
- Overcomes unacceptable taste of the drugs.
- Can be designed to leave minimal or no residue in the mouth after administration and also to provide a pleasant mouth feel.
- Allows high drug loading.
- Ability to provide advantages of liquid medication in the form of solid preparation.
- Cost- effective , hygroscopic , friable.
The introduction of fast dissolving dosage forms has solved some of the problems encountered in administration of drugs to the pediatric and elderly patient, which constitutes a large proportion of the world’s population. The mechanism of fast disintegrating tablets can be well understood by the following diagram-
Advantages of FDT s can be pointed out by following manner-
- Hard tablets with decreased disintegration time
- High flowing spray dried granular product
- Low product dustiness
- Co-processing results in inter and intra granular disintegrant dispersion
- Faster disintegration than physical mixture
- Ensures formulation will meet dissolution requirements
- Avoid costly wet granulations
The FDTs have potential advantages over conventional oral dosage forms with their improved patient compliance; convenience, bioavailability and rapid onset of action which drawn the attention of many manufactures over a decade.
The research is still going on. More products need to be commercialized to use this technology properly. Thus FDT may be developed for most of the available drugs in near future.
