Metronidazole Floating Microspheres

Gastroretentive systems can remain in the gastric region for several hours and hence significantly prolong the gastric residence time of drugs. Prolonged gastric retention improves bioavailability, reduces drug waste, and improves solubility for drugs that are less soluble in a high pH environment. Floating microspheres are especially effective in delivery of sparingly soluble and insoluble drugs. It is known that as the solubility of a drug decreases, the time available for drug dissolution becomes less adequate and thus the transit time becomes a significant factor affecting drug absorption. For weakly basic drugs that are poorly soluble at an alkaline pH, hollow microspheres may avoid chance for solubility to become the rate-limiting step in release by restricting such drugs to the stomach.