INTRODUCTION

The orally disintegrating tablet, or ODT, offers an easy-to-take alternative form to consumers of over-the-counter (OTC) treatments who perhaps do not have access to water, and patients of prescribed drugs who cannot, or will not, swallow standard oral dosage forms, such as tablets and capsules. It is not only patients at either end of the age spectrum – the very old and the very young – who suffer from an inability to swallow, or dysphagia, either, with a recent study indicating that 70% of younger people aged 16-34 who were surveyed reporting that they had difficulties swallowing tablets and capsules.1 Pre-existing conditions may affect compliance too, and those with mental health issues may not want to take their medications, instead, secreting the tablets in their mouth before disposing of them later, or saving them for misuse or even self-harm in the form of an overdose. It can be easier to give a medication to a child using an ODT and of course, in the animal health arena, it can be a significant challenge to get pets or livestock to swallow tablets.

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