Foaming Agents for Drug Delivery to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease

About 1.6 million Americans suffer from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), a condition that includes Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Treatment of this condition focuses on reducing the inflammation caused by IBD either through anti-inflammatory drugs or immunosuppressants . Many times it is preferable to deliver these drugs topically, and foams provide several benefits over the common liquid enemas. A number of foam products are already on the market to treat colitis including foams containing Mesalazine and Budesonide . Our experiment focused on evaluating non-traditional foaming agents and formulating an optimal foaming solution for lower gastrointestinal tract drug delivery.