A Review on Advances in the Development of Spermicides Loaded Vaginal Drug Delivery System: State of the Art

Abstract

Spermicides are bio-actives that might immobilize/kill the sperm in the vaginal tissues inducing contraception in the female genitalia. To inhibit sperm viability, the spermicidal drug might have to inhibit the penetration of sperm through the cervical tube of the uterus as well as attack sperm present in the vaginal walls. There are several classes of spermicidal agents, such as bactericides, sulfhydryl binding agents, natural compounds, and synthetic products. There are several classes of spermicidal agents that are widely reported. Spermicides could be available in different dosage forms as foams, gels, creams, films, sponges, and nanofibers. Available pharmaceutical spermicides showed particular importance for production on a large scale due to the continuous need for contraception. The upscaling of a process can be performed using a quality by design approach to ensure the achievement of the similarity principle between lab-scale and industrial scale. In addition, risk evaluation is performed to recognize all high-risk factors that can negatively affect the product to build the design space. Furthermore, the knowledge of the critical quality attributes enables the selection of the appropriate settings on a larger scale to establish a product of good quality and good packaging.