Recent Advances in the Excipients Used in Modified Release Vaginal Formulations

Abstract

The formulation of an ideal vaginal drug delivery system (DDS), with the requisite prop-erties, with respect to safety, efficacy, patient compliance, aesthetics, harmonization with the regulatory requirements, and cost, requires a meticulous selection of the active ingredients and the ex-cipients used. Novel excipients defined by diversity and multifunctionality are used in order to ameliorate drug delivery attributes. Synthetic and natural polymers are broadly used in pharmaceutical vaginal formulations (solid, semi-solid dosage forms, implantable devices, and nanomedi-cines) with a promising perspective in improving stability and compatibility issues when adminis-tered topically or systemically. Moreover, the use of biopolymers is aiming towards formulating novel bioactive, biocompatible, and biodegradable DDSs with a controllable drug release rate. Over-viewing vaginal microenvironment, which is described by variable and perplexed features, a per-ceptive choice of excipients is essential. This review summarizes the recent advances on the excipi-ents used in modified vaginal drug delivery formulations, in an attempt to aid the formulation sci-entist in selecting the optimal excipients for the preparation of vaginal products.The formulation of an ideal vaginal drug delivery system (DDS), with the requisite properties with respect to safety, efficacy, patient compliance, aesthetics, harmonization with the regulatory requirements and cost requires a meticulous selection of the active ingredients and the excipients used.