Managing extemporaneous oral liauids in practice

Abstract

Oral liquid preparations are often the dosage form of choice in paediatric and geriatric populations. Many drugs are not available in oral liquid dosage forms because of the complexity of formulating liquids and the small market size. Pharmacists are often challenged with the extemporaneous preparation of oral liquids from commercially available products. Most problems associated with the stability of these preparations have been attributed to interactions between the drug substance and excipients (tablet and formulation) rather than the degradation of the drug substance by standard routes. However, a review of 83 such dosage forms revealed that only 7.2% exhibited stability concerns. To address these challenges pharmacists may consider the management plan for oral liquid dosage forms presented in this paper to ensure the provision of safe, effective and quality drug products to patients.