Title:A Comprehensive Insight on Recent Advancements in Self-emulsifying
Drug Delivery Systems
Volume: 20
Issue: 8
Author(s): Renu Kadian and Arun Nanda*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India
Keywords:
Eutectic, hydrophobic ion pairing, lipophilic drugs, osmotic, phospholipid complex, self double emulsifying drug delivery systems, self-emulsifying drug delivery systems.
Abstract: A large proportion of new chemical moieties are poorly water-soluble. As a result, the biggest
challenge for researchers is to enhance the solubility and oral bioavailability of lipophilic drugs.
Self-emulsifying systems offer immense potential for improving lipophilic drugs’ oral bioavailability
and solubility through various mechanisms such as: inhibiting efflux transporters, absorption of the
lipophilic drug through the lymphatic system, and bypassing hepatic first-pass metabolism. These systems
dissolve hydrophobic drugs, allowing them to be delivered in a unit dose form for oral administration.
Despite much potential, issues like stability, low drug loading, packaging, etc., are associated with
the self-emulsifying technique. This review discusses conventional Self-Emulsifying Drug Delivery
Systems (SEDDS), which deliver poorly water-soluble drugs. Recent advancements in self-emulsifying
systems to solve the issues associated with conventional SEDDS are described exhaustively, including
their methodologies and excipients utilized for preparation. The current article also furnishes a literature
review on recent advancements in self-emulsifying systems. Recent advances in SEDDS are a great
option for overcoming oral bioavailability, stability, and solubility issues of lipophilic drugs. Solid-self
emulsifying system can be used to improve the stability of the formulation, hydrophobic ion-pairing for
improving mucus permeation properties, while supersaturated self-emulsifying systems with a low concentration
of surfactant to overcome issues such as precipitation of drug after dilution and gastrointestinal
related side effects. The day will come when medicine companies will see the value of selfemulsifying
system developments and adopt this technology for next-generation product releases.