Colon specific delivery systems: The local drug target.

The colon is a site where both local and systemic delivery of drugs can take place. Local delivery could, for example, allow topical treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. The delivery of drugs to the colon has a number of therapeutic implications in the field of drug delivery. In the recent times, the colon specific drug delivery system is also gaining importance not only for local drug delivery of drugs but also for the systemic delivery of protein & peptide drugs. The colon, as a site for drug delivery, is also beneficial for the treatment of disease sensitive to circadian rhythms and delivery of poorly absorbable drug. This review, mainly compares the primary approaches for CDDS (Colon Specific Drug Delivery) namely prodrugs, pH and time dependent systems, and microbially triggered systems, which achieved limited success and had limitations as compared with newer CDDS namely pressure controlled colonic delivery capsules, CODESTM, and osmotic controlled drug delivery which are unique in terms of achieving in vivo site specificity, and feasibility of manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]