Novel Approaches for Pulsatile Drug Delivery System

Pulsatile drug delivery systems (PDDS) are gaining importance in the field of pharmaceutical technology as these systems deliver the right dose at specific time at a specific site. These systems are designed according to the circadian rhythm of the body. The principle rationale for the use of pulsatile release is for the drugs where a constant drug release, i.e., a zero-order release is not desired. The release of the drug as a pulse after a lag time has to be designed in such a way that a complete and rapid drug release follows the lag time. Advantages of the pulsatile drug delivery system are reduced dose frequency; reduce side effects, drug targeting to specific site like colon and many more. Diseases wherein PDDS are promising include asthma, peptic ulcer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, attention deficit syndrome in children, and hypercholesterolemia. In pursuit of pulsatile release, various design strategies have been proposed, mainly including time controlling, stimuli induced, externally regulated and multiparticulate formulations. This review will cover methods with different polymeric systems like time controlling, internal stimuli induced (temperature induced and chemical stimuli-induced), and external induced (magnetic fields, ultrasound, electric fields and light stimulation) and multiparticulate system. The current article focuses on the diseases requiring PDDS, methodologies involved for the existing systems, recent update and PDDS product currently available in the market.