Review on disease, dose, destination and delivery aspects of simvastatin

Abstract

Statins are the choice of drugs for the treatment and management of hypercholesterolaemia because of their established lipid-lowering efficacy and safety profile. Among the various statins, simvastatin is a very popular antihyperlipidemic drug with pleiotropic effects that have a wide range of applications such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifibrotic effect as well as angiogenic activity. However, poor biopharmaceutical characteristics like low solubility and high permeability make this drug more challenging for formulation scientists in terms its delivery to different targeted areas. Oral drug delivery systems, lipid nanoparticles, PLGA nanoparticles, sustained-release tablets, matrix-type transdermal, co-encapsulating nanostructured lipid carriers are some of the strategies that have been explored to address this issue. This review provides an update regarding the disease, destination, dose and delivery associated with this wonderful lipid-lowering drug molecule.