Mini-Tablet Drug Delivery System for Pediatric Dosage Form (PDF): A Review of Manufacturing Perspectives

The Development of Pediatric Dosage Forms (PDF) is challenging and it’s mainly due to the differences in swallowing abilities, taste preferences, and dosage requirements of children. The most commonly prescribed dosage form for pediatric population is a liquid dosage form due to its easy to ingest benefits. However, liquid dosage form lacks in term of its stability, dose accuracy and dispensing faults. The traditional solid dosage forms (tablet and capsule) are considered not suitable due to swallowing difficulties of young children. With the aim to improve drug delivery for the pediatric population, a special attention is given to the development of mini-tablets. Mini-tablets represent a new trend in solid dosage form design and can employ as flexible drug delivery tool for single unit or composite of multiple units. Moreover, mini-tablets with well controlled quality attributes could be a practical choice for administering solid dosage forms of low potency drug substances as capsules or stick packs. This review emphasizes the various advantages of mini-tablets, formulation possibilities, manufacturing processes and their challenges.