Investigation of suitable microencapsulation techniques in the preformulation of selected antiretroviral drugs

Abstract

Background: The use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVDs) in the treatment of HIV/AIDS have been promising and effective especially amongst adults as it suppresses the viral load, thereby improving the life expectancy of HIV patients. However, the adoption of the treatment amongst children living with HIV have proved to be challenging. This is because of the poor drug adherence or non-compliance resulting from the lack of child-friendly formulations. The dosage forms are typically large tablets which have led to difficulty in swallowing or needs breaking of the tablets to obtain the correct dose and potentially some sort of dosage form manipulation by mixing it with milk or juice. The limited paediatric formulations that are available are mostly unpalatable, despite being formulated in a syrup or liquid, it still presents with a bitter taste. Therefore, all these factors combined have emphasized the need for child friendly dosage forms for children suffering from this debilitating disease.