Icanic Brands Co. Inc. (ICNAF)

Over the last three decades, intraoral dosage forms have been evolving as an acceptable and in some cases as the preferred, alternative to conventional tablets and capsules. Among them, Oral sprays are the fastest, most effective and comfortable way to take medicines, nutrients, minerals and vitamins. They have been acquiring important position in the market by overcoming previously encountered administration problems and contributing to extension of patent life.

Oral sprays have the unique property of rapidly releasing the drug in the oral cavity, thus obviating the requirement of water during administration. Therefore, these dosage forms have lured the market for a certain section of the patient population which includes dysphagic, bed ridden, and psychic, geriatric patients. This article focuses on the transmucosal view , spray formulation aspects , advances made so far in the field oral sprays and patented technologies.

Abstract: Nitroglycerin (glyceryl trinitrate, CAS 55-63-0, NTG) administered with an oral spray may be more effective in relieving anginal pain than sublingual tablets especially when the patient’s mouth is dry. In this study, the effect of a NTG oral spray (Myocor Spray) on exercise-induced angina was compared with that of a sublingual tablet in relation to the oral dryness. In 17 patients with effort angina, graded bicycle exercise was performed twice at an interval of one week.

Exercise was discontinued upon the onset of moderate anginal pain. Immediately after exercise, the oral dryness was evaluated by touching the tip of the tongue with a blotting paper for a moment. Then, 0.3 mg of NTG was administered by either a squirt of spray or a sublingual tablet in a randomized crossover fashion. Exercise results were reproducible between two exercise tests. According to the extent of the wet area of the blotting paper, the subjects were divided into two groups.

In 7 patients of the wet group, the remission times of chest pain and ST segment depression were not significantly different by the formulation of NTG. In 10 patients of the dry group, however, both chest pain and ST depression more rapidly recovered with use of the oral spray (p < 0.05 and p < 0.05, respectively). These results strongly suggest that the NTG oral spray is superior to the sublingual tablet in relieving anginal attacks, when the oral wetness is decreased.