Approaches for the delivery of skeletal muscle relaxants: A review

Skeletal muscle relaxants are a broad class of active pharmaceutical ingredients routinely prescribed for a variety of clinical conditions. The design of a successful product in this category relies primarily on the formulation strategies as compared to the drug in question. Almost all of the skeletal muscle relaxants known till date are extensively metabolised by first pass metabolism when administered orally, reducing their bioavailability and thus creating a need for newer methods to deliver the drugs into the body. Another drawback of oral delivery for these drugs relates to the possible side effect profiles. The main objective of this review is to report the current approaches for the delivery of skeletal muscle relaxants. Here, we have discussed the outcome of different techniques adopted in delivering the skeletal muscle relaxants through different routes of administration with an aim of lowering the side effects and providing sufficient concentration of drug in the body.