Solid dispersions as strategy to improve oral bioavailability of poor water soluble drugs

Solid dispersions are one of the most promising strategies to improve the oral bioavailability of poorly water soluble drugs. By reducing drug particle size to the absolute minimum, and hence improving drug wettability, bioavailability may be significantly improved. They are usually presented as amorphous products, mainly obtained by two major different methods, for example, melting and solvent evaporation. Recently, surfactants have been included to stabilize the formulations, thus avoiding drug recrystallization and potentiating their solubility. New manufacturing processes to obtain solid dispersions have also been developed to reduce the drawbacks of the initial process. In this review, it is intended to discuss the recent advances related on the area of solid dispersions.