Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems: a promising noninvasive approach to bioavailability enhancement. Part II: formulation considerations.

Introduction: Mucoadhesive drug delivery systems (MDDS) are specifically designed to interact and bind to the mucosal layer of the epithelium for localized, prolonged, and/or targeted drug delivery. Over the past 4 decades, several dosage forms have been developed for localized as well as systemic drug delivery at different anatomical sites.

Areas covered: The objective of this review is to provide a detailed understanding of the different aspects of MDDS. Part II describes the origin and evolution of MDDS, followed by a discussion of the properties of mucoadhesive polymers. Finally, a synopsis of the different commercial aspects of MDDS, recent advances in the development of MDDS for biologics and COVID-19 as well as future perspectives are provided.

Expert opinion: A review of the past reports and recent advances reveal MDDS as highly versatile, biocompatible, and noninvasive drug delivery systems. The rise in the number of approved biologics, the introduction of newer highly efficient thiomers, as well as the recent advances in the field of nanotechnology have led to several excellent applications of MDDS, which are predicted to grow significantly in the future.