ABSTRACT
The number of newly developed drugs having a poor solubility and thus exhibiting bioavailability problems after oral administration is steadily increasing. Estimates by the pharmaceutical companies are that about 40% of the drugs in the pipelines are poorly soluble, and as high as 60% of the compounds come directly from the synthesis route (1). Therefore, since a number of years the pharmaceutical development is
focused on formulation approaches to overcome solubility and related bioavailability problems, so that these new compounds are available for clinical use. Often forgotten, the problem of poor solubility arises even before the preclinical phase, which means that when screening new compounds for pharmacological activity a test formulation needs to be able to lead to sufficiently high blood levels. Therefore, there is an urgent need to come up with a smart formulation approach.
