Innovative technologies for oral drug delivery

Oral dosage forms have always been considered the preferred route of delivery, due to lower unit dose cost and improved patient compliance. The great increase in the duration and quality of human life was made possible by the availability of effective and well tolerated drugs, able to deal adequately with serious and widespread diseases. Now, the pharmaceutical challenge is shifted to drugs and preparations more specifically and focused on the needs of patient or groups of patients. Personalization of medicines or formulations can occur on the basis of dose adjustment, drug combination or different delivery kinetics. Innovative drug delivery systems have the potential to make treatments safer and more effective, or more convenient or acceptable to patients. Drug delivery systems are complex formulations in which the elements can concur to determine the delivery rate and kinetics. This paper is focused on the description of two technologies, such as powder agglomeration and module assembling, as approaches to obtain personalized dosage forms, dosing flexibility and/or combination products, as a function of patient's needs and his therapeutic treatment.