Ease of administration and patient compliance makes the oral route as the
most popular route of administration, but difficulty in swallowing or dysphagia may
limit the use of oral route in special populations like paediatrics, geriatrics, psychotics,
cancer patients, etc. Unavailability of water and episodic attack of allergy also
contributes to difficulties in swallowing tablets and capsules. Here the novel fast
dissolving oral film (FDOF) technology gives new hope to overcome these problems.
Oral films made from active ingredient and hydrophilic polymers are capable of rapidly
dissolution/disintegration in the buccal cavity. A part of the drug is absorbed from
buccal route providing the advantages of quicker onset, bypassing first pass effect and
reducing gastric degradation or metabolism. These qualities have made oral film a very
popular and convenient dosage form for paediatric, geriatric as well as adult
populations. This chapter describes formulation aspects, preparation technologies and
some important patents of FDOFs.
Keywords: Dysphagia, Fast dissolving oral film, Mucoadhesive, Nitroglycerin,
Pullulan, Starch.
