History speaks that oral dosage forms have been the most preferred ones amongst all the age groups of people because of their cost-effectiveness and minimal efforts of administration. However, conventional compressed tablets and capsules are associated with certain limitations associated to their varying plasma drug concentration, requirement of multiple dosing and difficulty in swallowing. Pharmaceutical Mini-tablets (MTs), seem to circumvent the above-mentioned limitation and can facilitate oral administration in pediatric and geriatric patients with minimal swallowing difficulty which can be attributed to their small diameter ≤4 mm. By reducing the fluctuations in drug release profile, MTs scan deliver the therapeutic agent efficiently with desired release pattern. The current paper is aimed to highlight the comparison of MTs with pellets, formulation and manufacturing techniques for MTs, their evaluation parameters, commercially available products, patents data on MTs, and a comp

Mini-tablets, oral dosage form, pediatrics, solid dosage form, floating dosage forms

If we compare MTs with conventional compressed tablets or single unit dosage forms, the MTs provide us several benefits which make them better alternative for pellets and granules. Moreover, MTs provide the benefits of combination therapy that is difficult to acquire through conventional solid dosage form. MTs have high mechanical strength and low porosity, it can be easily compressed into large size tablets or can be filled inside the capsule. Additionally, MTs increase the patient compliance, enhance the localized effect of the selected drug and avoid the dose dumping. MTs are most beneficial to the drug that are absorbed from small intestine, because they can easily pass-through the duodenum independent of gastric emptying and intestinal motility. As discussed in this review, MTs can be employed as a promising drug delivery system for pediatric as well as for geriatric patients. Recent novel work complied in the present paper will further provide a vivacious information platform to

Sagar, Kumar, R., Kulkarni, M.P., Vandana, P.B., Wadhwa, S., Singh, G. and Sharma, A. (2021). Minitablets: Recent Trends and Developments with an update on Research and Patents. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 13(2): 01-09.