Recent advances in solid dispersion technique for enhancing biopharmaceutical properties of lumefantrine: an overview

Abstract

Background Lumefantrine is a widely used antimalarial agent in combination with artemether. It is poorly water soluble and belongs to the biopharmaceutical classification class II. In the last decade, various strategies have been explored for increasing its dissolution rate and oral bioavailability (BA). A literature review revealed that various approaches based on solid dispersion (SD) have been investigated for this purpose and also evaluated for their benefits in vivo. Therefore, the major focus of the present article is to review the research carried out on the SD of lumefantrine with different polymers in the last decade. This review also discusses the classifications of SD based on their molecular arrangements and the polymers or carriers used, along with their advantages and disadvantages. This review described different techniques to prepare a SD of lumefantrine and their effects on solubility, dissolution rates, and oral BA. The SD-based approaches showed promising potential for increasing the oral BA of lumefantrine.