Development and characterization of paracetamol medicated lollipops

Abstract Objectives The oral route is the most common route of administration of drugs because of the low cost of therapy, ease of administration, patient compliance, and flexibility in formulation. Taking oral medicine is extremely odious to some patients, such as pediatric and geriatric patients. Paracetamol is one of the most used antipyretic and analgesic drugs, used in the management of fever and headache. Difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia) is common among pediatric and geriatric patients. Accordingly, there is a need for a solid form of medicine that is in a form easy to take and swallow, such as lollipops. The main objective of the present research study is to provide a solid form of medicine that is in a form that makes it pleasant to take and swallow by pediatric, geriatric, and bedridden patients, and avoid the dangers of being swallowed as do the other solid forms in those patients. However, lollipop is designed to improve patient compliance, acceptability, transportation, etc. Methods In the present research study, an attempt has been made to prepare sugar-based paracetamol medicated lollipops for pediatrics, geriatrics, and bedridden patients to overcome the administration problem. The paracetamol medicated lollipops were prepared using sucrose and corn syrup. All the formulations prepared were subjected to various physicochemical parameters like hardness, friability, weight variation, drug content, etc. Results The hardness of these lollipops ranges between 8 and 11 kg/cm3 with good physical characteristics like taste and color, they have good stability and moisture content below 1% and no variation in the IR spectrum. Conclusions Conventional dosage forms have some limitations that make it hard to use in pediatric and geriatric patients such as dysphagia, while medicated lollipops are found to be favorable by them and also effective in delivering the drug with advantages like bypass of the first-pass metabolism and increasing drug contact time in the mouth which increases its bioavailability. Paracetamol medicated lollipops can provide an attractive alternative formulation in the treatment of fever and pain in pediatric and geriatric patients because they are easily swallowed.