Oral Films: A Look Back

Abstract

Oral films, a promising novel drug delivery system, are a strip of single or multilayered, mucoadhesive or non-mucoadhesive, thin polymeric films that are intended to deliver active therapeutic moieties either locally or systemically in oral cavity through sublingual, buccal, palatal, or gastrointestinal absorption [1-3]. In general, films are known by several names including but not limited to orodispersible films [4], orally disintegrating/dissolving films [5,6], rapid/fast/quick dissolving films [7-10], oral soluble films [11], oral thin films [12], strip films [1,13,14], quick disintegrating/dissolving films [8], buccal or buccal soluble film [15], mucoadhesive films [16], transmucosal films [17], sublingual films [18], etc. Strip films or thin films could be considered as a broad spectrum of classification or superset of films that might include all kinds of film applications for oral, topical/transdermal, vaginal, etc. Consequently, the focus of this topic, oral films, are generally strip or thin films intended for oral application, i.e., either oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract, and can generally be classified into oromucosal films and orodispersible films.