CAPSULE DOSAGE FORMS: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODS

Oral drug delivery is widely used route of drug administration by wide range of populations. Various types of oral dosage forms available are tablets, capsules, solutions, strips etc. Among all these dosage forms, capsules offer various advantages and are widely accepted. Capsules are defined as solid unit oral dosage form which contains medicaments which are encapsulated into various shell materials. Major types of capsules are Hard gelatin and Soft gelatin capsules. Other types of capsules shell material used are HPMC, Starch, Pullulan which offers increased benefits when compared to gelatin material. Emerging capsules technologies are ruling the
capsule world by offering numerous advantages which helps in large scale production of capsules. Various types of capsules include control release capsules, Nano capsules, Micro capsules, Enteric coated capsules, 3D printed capsules and sustained release capsules. Newer technology in capsule formation includes capsules in capsule form, which contain different types of medicaments which are incorporated into single capsules which helps in increasing
patient compliance. AI in use of capsule formulation has been developed in a few areas of manufacturing. Telemetric capsules are the capsules which are used for real time monitoring of the body’s various physiological parameters. Recently 10 capsule forms have been approved by FDA in 2022. Improvement in manufacturing technology has led to increase in usage of capsules.

KEYWORDS: Capsules, Hard gelatin capsules, Nano capsules, Micro capsules, Telemetric capsules, 3D capsules