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Research and development costs for a single new pharmaceutical that is introduced to the market are estimated to cost between $1 billion and $2 billion. Due to the high cost of development and the need to quickly access various technologies, it is more cost-effective (clinically and financially) to enhance current pharmaceuticals for potency, selectivity, drug metabolism, and dosing convenience before they reach the market. Orally dissolving tablets have been developed as a result. Pharmaceutical companies have created oral disintegrating tablets that dissolve or disintegrate in the mouth within a few seconds of being placed there in order to maximize the safety and efficacy of the medicine molecule. Because patients with weak physiological (patients with mental illnesses) and physical capacities can easily administer it to geriatrics, children, and patients with these conditions (patients suffering from dysphagia), as well as traveling patients who may not have easy access to water and where swallowing conventional solid oral-dosage forms presents difficulties, it has grown in popularity among a wide population. These tablets can be prepared in many ways like direct compression, freeze drying, sublimation, molding, and spray drying by using single or combinations of superdisintegrants or subliming agents.

Aim: The present research work was aimed to formulate fast disintegrating tablets (FDTs) of salbutamol sulphate (SBS) using a combination of a superdisintegrant and a subliming agent, optimize the formulation and evaluate the in vitro performance of the developed FDTs. Materials and Methods: A formulation of SBS FDT was developed using a combination of superdisintegrant - crospovidone and subliming agent - Ammonium Bicarbonate (AB) in which formulation variables, namely levels of crospovidone and Microcrystalline Cellulose (MCC):Mannitol (MNTL) ratio, were evaluated for their effects on the response variables, disintegration time, hardness, friability and wetting time, of the resulting FDTs. By employing Central Composite Design (CCD) methodology, the FDTs were optimized to achieve optimum levels of the formulation factors. Results: The desired optimum condition was obtained at 7.82% crospovidone and 70% of 1.56:1 MCC: MNTL ratio, while maintaining AB at 5% level for aesthetic reasons. Under the optimized conditions, the disintegration time, hardness, friability, and wetting time were 14.57 ± 0.53 sec, 7.17 ± 0.82 kg/cm2, 0.311% and 13.14 ± 0.69 sec, respectively. The experimentally observed responses were found to be in close agreement with the predicted values for the optimized formulation. Moreover, the validity of the obtained optimal point was confirmed by the low magnitude of percent prediction error (< 5%). Conclusion: FDTs of SBS were successfully formulated and optimized using CCD employing a combination of a superdisintegrant and a subliming agent.

The cost of research and development for a single new treatment that reaches the market is enormous and rising, with estimates ranging from $1 billion to $2 billion. Because of the high cost of development and the need to quickly access multiple technologies, it is more cost-effective (clinically and financially) to optimize existing drugs for potency, selectivity, drug metabolism, and dosing convenience before they reach the market. This has resulted in the development of orally disintegrating tablets. Orally disintegrating tablets are patient-oriented pharmaceutical preparations which aim to enhance the safety and efficacy of the drug molecule by formulating a dosage form which disintegrates or dissolves in a few seconds after placement in the mouth. This dosage form has gained popularity among the general public because it is easily administered to geriatrics patients, pediatric patients, patients with poor physiological abilities (e.g., patients suffering from mental disorders), and patients with physical abilities (e.g., patients suffering from dysphagia), traveling patients that may not have ready access to water, and to patients that are in a situation where swallowing conventional solid oral-dosage forms presents difficulties. These tablets can be prepared in many ways like direct compression, freeze drying, sublimation, molding, and spray drying by using single or combinations of superdisintegrants or subliming agents.

Fikadu Ejeta, Diriba Feyisa, Temesgen Aferu, Jafer Siraj, Demeke Melkam, Ahmed Ali School of Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan-Aman, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Fikadu Ejeta, Tel +251910136034, Email fikaduejeta@gmail.comIntroduction: Obstacles encountered when maintaining excellent dispensing practices for children include a lack of age-appropriate dosage forms, a shortage of medications in appropriate strengths for children, a lack of appetizing drugs, and a lack of competence in pediatric pharmacy. These difficulties contribute to ineffective dispensing procedures and an urgent need to study whether oral dose forms of medications are dispensed to children in a rational way.Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the rational dispensing of oral dosage forms of medicines to children, as well as the factors that influence this practice.Methods: Using validated indicators, a cross-sectional study design was utilized to analyze the rational dispensing practice of oral dosage forms of medicines administered to children under the age of 12 years in seven pharmacies and two drug stores over a one-month period.Results and discussions: Out of 810 medicines, 11.7% and 4% were irrationally manipulated, 5.8% and 1.8% needed manipulation, 3.7% and 0.2% were alternatively dispensed, 8.8% and 7.5% of the medicines had correct advice on their label and also 745 medicines were adequately labeled in the hospital and the selected drug stores. In this study, 92% of medicines were adequately labeled and had sufficient advice on their labels, 15.3% of medicines were irrationally manipulated and around 7.7% of the dosage forms needed manipulation during dispensing. The type of medicine retail outlet had a significant effect on the percentage of instances where alternative solid oral dosage forms were dispensed (p = 0.003), the percentage of dosage forms were adequately labeled (p = 0.008), and the percentage of dosage forms were irrationally manipulated before dispensing (p = 0.001).Conclusion: The rational dispensing practice of oral dosage forms of medicines was relatively poor and there is room for improvement.Keywords: rational dispensing, oral dosage forms, rational drug use, children

The development of nanomedicine or medical nanotechnology, has brought important new ways to the development of medicines and biotechnology products. As a result of groundbreaking discoveries in the use of nanoscale materials significant commercialization initiatives have been launched and are at the forefront of the rapidly expanding field of nanotechnology by using smart particles. Microfluidic technologies use nano-and micro-scale manufacturing technologies to develop controlled and reproducible liquid microenvironments. Lead compounds with controlled physicochemical properties can be obtained using microfluidics, characterized by high productivity, and evaluated by biomimetic methods. Microfluidics, for example, can not only produce nanoparticles in a well-controlled, reproducible, and high-throughput manner, but it can also continuously create three-dimensional environments to mimic physiological and/or pathological processes. Materials with smart properties can be manipulated to respond in a controllable and reversible way, modifying some of their properties as a result of external stimuli such as mechanical stress or a certain temperature. All in all, microfluidic technology offers a potential platform for the rapid synthesis of various novel drug delivery systems. Therefore, these smart particles are equally necessary as the drug in drug delivery.

Live attenuated and inactivated pathogens, as well as subunit vaccinations, can give long-term protection against a variety of deadly diseases. Despite this progress, vaccine development for a number of infectious diseases, particularly those that are more capable of evading the adaptive immune response, remains a serious issue. Furthermore, the fundamental impediment to the greatest uptake of virus vaccines isn’t usually the efficacy of conventional procedures, but rather the requirement for more fast research and large-scale manufacture. As a result, the development of more powerful and adaptable vaccine platforms is critical. The complexities of developing the manufacturing process, formulation, and analytical assays, as well as the problem of scientific assay optimization, are the most well-known barriers to vaccine development failures or delays. Scientists argue that the extremely concentrated state of global vaccine manufacturing capacity limits large-scale vaccine production. At the moment, only a few countries have the capacity to make vaccines on their own. Scaling up vaccine production is difficult, and a shortage of manufacturing sites is limiting global vaccine availability. Vaccine manufacturing and the development of breakthrough technologies capable of producing huge quantities of vaccines against known and undiscovered infections are difficult tasks nowadays. Vaccines can be made as suspensions, emulsions, or freeze-dried powders with a variety of adjuvants. However, many of those manufactured vaccines face multiple problems from a pharmaceutical standpoint, including the risk for acute hypersensitivity reactions, the need for extremely cold storage temperatures, and handling and delivery requirements. These requirements should limit vaccine supply to different populations, which has a negative impact on health equity. In the production of vaccines during upstream and downstream processes, new facilities, equipment, and enabling technology may be required, some of which may have an impact on how existing vaccines are manufactured. Despite these advancements, long-standing difficult circumstances will persist or worsen. Despite the fact that the number of individuals required is significantly less than in massive phase 3 studies, pharmacokinetic investigations can be logistically challenging and expensive. Even if there are challenging scenarios for implementing new pharmacokinetic models, there may be significant value in doing so, even in the context of an approved medication. The use of this ethically complex and contentious method for vaccine evaluation would necessitate interdisciplinary, global oversight to ensure that the results are rigorous and justify the potential dangers to participants and their communities.