General properties

Modified release oral dosage forms are becoming increasingly important, either to achieve the desired level of therapeutic activity required for a new drug or to extend the life cycle of an existing one.
These technologies can be applied to many pharmaceutical formulations which, by providing modulated absorption may reduce oral administration of a medicament to only one or two daily doses (see curve in example A: in vivo controlled release of a pharmaceutical active substance).
This explains why modified release oral specialties are strongly recommended in all cases where patients are obliged, for the short half-life of a drug, to ingest several doses daily.
See Graphic No 1

Other two examples:
The first one shows how there is a reduction of secondary effects when administering the delayed form.
See Graphic No 2

The second example shows patient convenience of administering only one delayed single dose (B) instead of four normal doses (C).
See Graphic No 3