Background:
The delivery of therapeutic agents through the oral route remains the most favorable one as
compared to other routes of drug administration. However, numerous disadvantages are encountered in conventional
formulations such as low bioavailability, first-pass metabolism, gastric irritation, delayed onset of action, bitter taste, low
retention time, frequent dosing, and non-localized drug targeting. All these problems encountered guide the various
pharmaceutical industries to manufacture and develop a novel solid oral dosage form called lozenges. Lozenges are solid
oral dosage forms of medicament, meant to be dissolved within the mouth or pharynx. It may consist of one or more than
one medicinal agent contained in a sweetened and flavored base material.
Objective:
The present review is focused on various types, compositions, methodologies used to prepare the medicated
lozenges and on different evaluation parameters that establish its safety and efficacy. It also put a light on different
commercially available and reported medicated lozenges formulation.
Method:
The various review and research articles reported by different researchers were studied extensively by using the
databases of Google Scholar, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science and various commercial websites that were also
investigated for information regarding new products.
Results:
Lozenges provides various advantages in terms of patient compliance, rapid onset of action, prolonged retention
time, enhancement of bioavailability, ease of manufacturing, localized drug targeting, sustained or controlled effect, and
reduced dosing frequency. It has also the ability to incorporate the drugs belong to different therapeutic classes for treating
various disorders related to oral cavities like gingivitis, dental plaque, mouth ulcers, throat pain, oral thrush, throat
infection, periodontitis, and pharyngitis. However, its applicability is not only limited to localized action, but it has also
been employed to deliver the drug systemically for the conditions such as cough, decongestion, runny nose, nausea,
vomiting, allergy, low immunity, fever, body ache, the killing of worms and smoking cessation.
Conclusion:
It was concluded that it has been played an important role in the field of drug delivery and will continue to
perform in the same way in the future as well.