Review: Oral beads as a platform for sustained drug delivery

Multiparticulate drug delivery systems extend the frontier of pharmaceutical progress future by offering marvellous prospects for designing unique controlled and delayed-release oral preparations. Beads are composed of many distinct units. The preparation of microbeads drug delivery system is one of the alternatives which include neither utilization of harsh chemical nor raised temperature. This presented review gives a special emphasis on beads technology, ionic gelation and modified methodologies for preparation of beads. In general, the ionic gelation method mainly relies on the cross-linking between polyelectrolytes counterions and eventually, hydrogels will be formed. Natural origin polysaccharides biopolymers utilization has been widely augmented especially in controlled \ sustained formulation; accordingly, an eco-friendly pharmaceutical product can be provided. Furthermore, the review shed light on merits, limitations, promising polymers involved in the preparation, recent advances of multiple-unit drug delivery system approach based on Ionotropic gelation method, pharmaceutical application, and several basic evaluation characteristics.