A REVIEW OF PELLETS AND PELLETIZATION PROCESS – A MULTIPARTICULATE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Multiparticulate drug delivery systems like pellets, granules, micro particles, minitablets etc., prove to be promising and highly flexible systems with ease of formulating with different drug release kinetics. These multiparticulate dosage forms are essential where drug-excipients or drug-drug physicochemical interactions are possible in a single-unit formulation. In present times, pelletization technologies are gaining much attention as they represent an efficient pathway for manufacture of oral drug delivery systems. Pelletization is an agglomeration process that converts fine powders or granules of bulk drugs and excipients into small, free flowing semi-spherical units. Pellets, being multiparticulate systems, are widely used due to the technological as well as therapeutic advantages over single-unit dosage forms. The present review focus on advantages, disadvantages, formation of pellet growth, different pelletization techniques, characterization, marketed pellets products and also outlines recent developments in the pharmaceutical approaches that have been used to prepare pelletized dosage forms with different techniques like Hot Melt Extrusion-Spheronization, Freeze and Cryopelletization, Microtabletting technology.