Oral dosage forms favor good patient acceptance and compliance in great part because they are easy to take. However, achieving sufficient bioavailability by the oral route can be challenging due to the complexity of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Oral bioavailability of therapeutic substances is governed by their intrinsic properties, notably solubility in aqueous media and ability to permeate the intestinal barrier.
About 95% of new molecular entities are small moleculesa (i.e. organic compounds with low molecular weight). Of these, 80% fall in the BCS II and 20% in BCS IV categories for which oral bioavailability is challenged by poor solubility in aqueous GI environment. The use of lipid-based formulations (LBF) as drug delivery system is a well-known strategy to overcome this limitation and increase in vivo drug exposure.