Utility of Prescription Information to Screen Drug Candidates Suitable for Orally Disintegrating Tablets

Abstract

Prescriptions provide information about drug therapy. We examined outpatient prescriptions in two college hospitals to screen drug candidates that are suitable for orally disintegrating tablets. Since these tablets can be taken without water or with little water, oral medicines that had been prescribed before and/or after meals were omitted at the screening. If several medicines were prescribed to be taken with the orally disintegrating tablets at the same time, patients usually drink water to take them. We then extracted the medicines that had been singly prescribed for one dosage time or one prescription. The obtained prescription survey data were compared with the opinions of 176 pharmacists. Drugs selected from the prescriptions almost completely satisfied the pharmacists except for cathartics, anticancer drugs, and Chinese herbal extract medicines. The final results for the drug candidates were antipyretic analgesics, antiemetics, hypnotics (sedatives), and antispasmodics (against GI diseases).