Development of lozenges dated back to 20th century and remains popular till date among the consumers resulting in large-scale commercial production. Lozenges are one of the widely used solid dosage forms. . Lozenges are meant to dissolve in the mouth or pharynx for its local or systemic effect. Lozenges provide a palatable means of dosage form for administration & provide several advantages as pharmaceutical formulations.
Lozenge as a dosage form can be adopted for drug delivery across buccal route, labial route, gingival route and sublingual route. Also multiple drugs can also be incorporated in them for chronic illness treatments. Lozenge enables loading of wide range of active ingredients for oral systemic delivery of drugs & is available as over the counter medications in the form of compressed tablet lozenges containing drugs for sore throat, mouth infection and as mouth fresheners.
Lozenges dissolve slowly in the mouth or throat which is a favored delivery system particularly for drugs meant for relieving sore throats and cold symptoms.
Lozenges are used for patients who have difficulty swallowing of solid oral dosage forms as well as for the drugs which should be released slowly to yield a constant amount of drug in the oral cavity or to coat the throat tissues with the solution of drug . The lozenge tablets differ from conventional tablets in terms of organolepticity, non-disintegrating characteristics and with slower dissolution profiles.
A number of innovative technologies have been developed to improve the conventional forms of lozenges which include the use of novel ingredients and techniques to enhance taste, reduce calorie content, facilitate quick manufacture and modify the drug release characteristics. The benefits of the medicated lozenges is to increase the retention time of the dosage form in oral cavity which increases bioavailability, reduces gastric irritation and bypasses first pass metabolism. The predilection of lozenge can be attributed mainly to their ability to keep the naso-pharyngeal mucosa moist, enhance the swallowing reflex and to provide longer contact time of the drug on the mucosal layer.
There are different types of Lozenges based on
- Site of Action: Local and systemic action lozenges
- Based on Texture: Medicated type compressed lozenge tablets, hard candy lozenges, chewy or caramel based medicated lozenges, soft lozenges and center filled lozenges and non-medicated type lozenge include sugar candies and lollypops.
Lozenges provide easy administration, convenience to patient, large patient compliance and efficient treatment of low drug dosing, immediate onset of action, reduced dosage regimen and cost effectiveness.
Lozenges as medicated confections both for local and systemic delivery of drugs are growing more popular & are expected to acquire more demand in pharmaceutical production as innovative dosage forms for potent drugs which seem to be an ideal dosage form. New drug design in this area always benefit for the patient, physician and drug industries. Lozenges surely will enjoy the most wanted position in pharmacy in the very near future.
References –
- May 2016 International Research Journal of Pharmacy 7(4):9-16 DOI:10.7897/2230-8407.07432
- Recent Pat Drug Deliv Formul. 2014;8(2):92-100. doi: 10.2174/1872211308666140422150205.
- American Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences p-ISSN: 2165-901X e-ISSN: 2165-90362015; 5(2): 99-104 doi:10.5923/j.ajmms.20150502.07