Gummies and gel tablets: New approaches to oral drug delivery

Oral drug intake is accepted as the most preferred route of administration to reveal therapeutic effects in local and systemic diseases. The most important advantages of the oral route are that it is the most preferred route of administration in terms of not requiring specific sterility conditions, cost-effectiveness, ease of production of the dosage form, high patient compliance, and being non-invasively applicable. However, pediatric, geriatric and bedridden patients and disadvantaged patients who are dysphagic or mentally unable to adapt have difficulties using conventional oral dosage forms such as tablets or capsules. Alternative formulations, such as liquid dosage forms or orally dispersible tablets, have facilitated the administration of orally administered drugs and can relatively reduce problems related to dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). However, liquid dosage forms have the disadvantage of low stability in the long term. It is known that orodispersible tablets reduce patient compliance due to the taste of the active ingredient that cannot be suppressed and the drying sensation they leave in the mouth in the geriatric population with reduced saliva production. All these shortcomings increase the search for a new generation dosage form. Gummies and gel tablets are among the new-generation dosage forms introduced to the market as an alternative to conventional oral dosage forms and whose market share is expected to increase. Gummies and gel tablets do not require water or pleasant chewiness. Thanks to their advantages, such as exciting colour, odour and taste, an increase in patient acceptability has been observed compared to other oral dosage forms. This review mentions the advantages and disadvantages of oral administration, conventional oral dosage forms, detailed information about gummies and gel tablets, preparation methods, excipients used, current research and the place and future of these innovative dosage forms in the pharmaceutical industry.

Journal

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PHARMACY

Year

2025

Volume

29

Issue

3

Pages

1301-1317

ISSN

2630-6344

DOI

10.12991/jrespharm.1712386

WoS UID

WOS:001538397700019