Bioadhesive-based dosage forms: The next generation

Prolonged contact time of a drug with a body tissue, through the use of a b ioadhesive polymer, can significantly improve the performance of many drugs . These improvements range from better treatment of local pathologies to im proved drug bioavailability and controlled release to enhanced patient comp liance. There are abundant examples in the literature over the past 15 year s of these improvements using first generation or "off-the-shelf" bioadhesi ve polymers. The present mini-review will remind us of the success achieved with these first-generation polymers and focus on proposals for the next-g eneration polymers and attendant benefits likely to occur with these improv ed polymeric systems. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmaceut ical Association.