Abstract

Self-Emulsifying Drug Delivery System is a unique feasible approach to overcome low oral bioavailability problem which is associated with the hydrophobic drugs due to their unparalleled potential as a drug delivery with the broad range of application. The estimated 40% of active pharmaceuticals are poorly water soluble. Now recently, formulation containing oral SEDDS has received much interest as it solve problems related to oral bioavailability, intra and inter-subject variability and lack of dose proportionality of hydrophobic drugs. Now a days, it is the first way to investigate the development of any kind of innovative dosage forms. Many important in-vitro characteristics such as surfactant concentration, oil/surfactant ratio, emulsion polarity, droplet size and zeta potential play an important role in oral absorption of drug from SEEDS. It can be orally administered in the form of SGC or HGC and also enhances bioavailability of drugs to increase solubility and minimizes the gastric irritation. After administration the drug remains entrapped in the oily droplets (inside the droplet or in the surfactant`s film at the interface) of the emulsion that are formed in the GIT upon self-emulsification process. It is also a bit problematic to say that the drug is being released from SMEDDS, it would be more precise to say that it diffuses out of oily droplets into the GIT media resulting in the formation of an equilibrium between the drug dissolved in oily droplets and the outer dispersed media (e.g. GIT fluids). Many of the application and preparation methods of SEDDS are reported by research articles and patents in different countries. We present an exhaustive and updated account of numerous literature reports and more than 150 patents published on SEDDS in the recent period. This current patent review is useful in knowledge of SEDDS for its preparations and patents in different countries with emphasis on their formulation, characterization and systematic optimization strategies, thus paving the way for accelerated progress into the SEDDS application in pharmaceutical research as well as patents on SEDDS methods.

Keywords: Bioavailability, lipophilic phase, oral route, patents, self emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS).