Fig. 1
From: Development of an oral once-weekly drug delivery system for HIV antiretroviral therapy
Concept of oral long acting antiretrovirals. a The design of the gastric resident dosage forms. The dosage form consists of an elastomeric core (grey) and six drug loaded arms (multi-coloured). b The cross section of the arm. The outer sleeve of the arms is made of a rigid structural polymer which provides the arm its mechanical strength. This sleeve is then filled with a drug–polymer matrix which releases the drug at a desired rate. c The manufacturing scheme of the dosage form. The expected performance of the dosage form in vivo is shown in d. The dosage form is loaded with three different polymers (blue, red and yellow) which release the drug at different rates. Selection of appropriate polymers may result in almost constant and sustained plasma drug concentrations. It should be noted that d is a schematic representing an ideal system, and is not experimentally obtained data
