IJPCBS 2014, 4(1), 201-207 Deepak Shar ma et al. ISSN: 2249-9504 201 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES Available online at www.ijpcbs.com A REVIEW ON MULTIPARTICULATE FLOATING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM Deepak Sharma*, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Manish Jaimini and Amit Kumar Depar tment of Phar maceutics, Jaipur College of Phar macy, Sitapur a, Jaipur , Rajasthan, India. I NTRODUCTI ON Pharmaceutical invention and research are increasingly focusing on delivery systems which enhance desirable therapeutic objectives while minimising side effects. Recent trends indicate that single and multiparticulate drug delivery systems are especially suitable for achieving controlled or delayed release oral formulations with low risk of dose dumping, flexibility of blending to attain different release patterns as well as reproducible and short gastric residence time. Although single unit floating dosage forms have been extensively studied, these single unit dosage forms have the disadvantage of a release all or nothing emptying process while the multiple unit particulate system pass through the GIT to avoid the vagaries of gastric emptying and thus release the drug more uniformly. The uniform distribution of these multiple unit dosage forms along the GIT could result in more reproducible drug absorption and reduced risk of local irritation; this gave birth to oral controlled drug delivery and led to development of Gastro-retentive floating microspheres. Gastro retentive system can remain in the gastric region for several hours and hence significantly prolong the gastric residence time of drugs. Prolonged gastric retention improves bioavailability, reduces drug waste, and improves solubility of drugs that are less soluble in a high pH environment. It has applications also for local drug delivery to the stomach and proximal small intestines. 1 Basic physiology of gastrointestinal tr act Anatomically the stomach is divided in to three regions: Fundus, Body and Antrum (pylorus).The proximal part made of fundus and body acts as a reservoir for undigested materials, whereas the antrum is the main site for mixing motions and acts as a pump for gastric emptying by propelling actions (Figure 1). Gastric emptying occurs in both the fasting and fed states. R eview Article ABSTRACT Recent several technical advancements have led to development of various systems that could revolutionize method of drug delivery and hence could provide definite therapeutic benefits. It is an established fact that the conventional immediate release drug delivery systems when taken frequently in a day can maintain drug concentration levels in therapeutically effective range but this result in significant fluctuations in plasma drug levels. The floating or hydro dynamically controlled drug delivery systems namely, floating microspheres, micro beads, microcapsules etc., are useful in overcoming such uncertainty. Micro beads are small, solid and free flowing particulate carriers containing dispersed drug particles. Placing of these DDS in specific region of the GIT offers numerous advantages, specially the drugs having narrow absorption window in GIT, primary absorption in the stomach, stability problem in the intestine, poor solubility at alkaline pH, local activity in stomach, and property to degrade in colon. Recent scientific research has shown increased interest in novel dosage forms that can be retained in the stomach for a prolonged and predictable period of time. The present review deals with the concept, mechanism, recent innovations and applications of multiparticulate drug delivery system.