Nanosuspension: An approach to enhance solubility of drugs

One of the major problems associated with poorly soluble drugs is very low bioavailability. The problem is even more complex for drugs like itraconazole, simvastatin, and carbamazepine which are poorly soluble in both aqueous and nonaqueous media, belonging to BCS class II as classified by biopharmaceutical classification system. Formulation as nanosuspension is an attractive and promising alternative to solve these problems. Nanosuspension consists of the pure poorly water-soluble drug without any matrix material suspended in dispersion. Preparation of nanosuspension is simple and applicable to all drugs which are water insoluble. A nanosuspension not only solves the problems of poor solubility and bioavailability, but also alters the pharmacokinetics of drug and thus improves drug safety and efficacy. This review article describes the preparation methods, characterization, and applications of the nanosuspension.