Guidance for Industry 

Orally Disintegrating Tablets 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Food and Drug Administration 

Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) 

December 2008

Chemistry 

 
Guidance for Industry 

Orally Disintegrating Tablets 

Additional copies are available from: 

Office Communications 

Division of Drug Information, WO51, Room 2201 

10903 New Hampshire Ave. 

Silver Spring, MD 20993 

Phone: 301-796-3400; Fax: 301-847-8714 

druginfo@fda.hhs.gov 

 http://www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/index.htm 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Food and Drug Administration 

Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) 

December 2008

Chemistry 

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1

II. BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................... 1

III. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................... 2

IV. DISINTEGRATION TESTING ...................................................................................... 3

 
Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

Guidance for Industry1

Orally Disintegrating Tablets 

This guidance represents the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) current thinking on this topic. It 

does not create or confer any rights for or on any person and does not operate to bind FDA or the public. 

You can use an alternative approach if the approach satisfies the requirements of the applicable statutes 

and regulations. If you want to discuss an alternative approach, contact the FDA staff responsible for 

implementing this guidance. If you cannot identify the appropriate FDA staff, call the appropriate 

number listed on the title page of this guidance. 

I. INTRODUCTION 

This guidance provides pharmaceutical manufacturers of new and generic drug products with an 

Agency perspective on the definition of an orally disintegrating tablet (ODT)—which is a 

different dosage form than, for example, a chewable tablet or a tablet that should be swallowed 

whole with liquid—and also provides recommendations to applicants who would like to 

designate proposed products as ODTs. 

FDA's guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable 

responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe the Agency's current thinking on a topic and should 

be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are 

cited. The use of the word should in Agency guidances means that something is suggested or 

recommended, but not required. 

II. BACKGROUND 

In an effort to develop drug products that are more convenient to use and to address potential 

issues of patient compliance for certain product indications and patient populations, 

pharmaceutical manufacturers have developed products that can be ingested simply by placing 

them on the tongue. The products are designed to disintegrate or dissolve rapidly on contact 

with saliva, thus eliminating the need to chew the tablet, swallow an intact tablet, or take the 

tablet with liquids. This mode of administration was initially expected to be beneficial to 

pediatric and geriatric patients, to people with conditions related to impaired swallowing, and for 

treatment of patients when compliance may be difficult (e.g., for psychiatric disorders). 

 

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 This guidance was prepared by the Office of Pharmaceutical Science in the Center for Drug Evaluation and 

Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration. 

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Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

After the Agency received and reviewed applications for the initial products, the CDER 

Nomenclature Standards Committee developed the following definition for an ODT as a new 

dosage form in 1998: 

A solid dosage form containing medicinal substances which disintegrates 

rapidly, usually within a matter of seconds, when placed upon the 

tongue.

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Characteristics that were exhibited by the initial products included low tablet weight, small tablet 

size, highly soluble components, and rapid disintegration. Such characteristics supported the 

intended uses of these products. 

However, as firms started developing additional products using different technology and 

formulations, many of these later products exhibited wide variation in product characteristics 

from the initial products. Because this shift in product characteristics can affect suitability for 

particular uses, the Agency developed this guidance for industry. 

III. DISCUSSION 

As briefly discussed in section II, an ODT has previously been distinguished as a separate dosage 

form because of the specific, intended performance characteristics of such a product, which are 

rapid oral disintegration in saliva with no need for chewing or drinking liquids to ingest these 

products. These characteristics, which are an aid to patient use and compliance, are the primary 

characteristics that constitute the basis for classifying a product as an ODT. 

The recommendations in this guidance are based on the intention of the original definition and 

on Agency experience with new drug applications (NDAs) and abbreviated new drug 

applications (ANDAs) submitted for this dosage form. To determine what the Agency's 

experience has been, we surveyed applications for products submitted to the Agency, completed 

a literature review, and collected information from laboratory studies that showed that although 

disintegration times ranged from a few seconds to longer than a minute, a large majority of these 

products have in-vitro disintegration times of approximately 30 seconds or less. These products 

represented different manufacturing technologies, a variety of tablet sizes and weights, and 

various disintegration strategies, thus demonstrating that relatively rapid disintegration is readily 

achievable across a variety of products. 

Products labeled as ODTs should match the primary characteristics for this dosage form 

(identified above). Based on the original product rationale and Agency experience, we 

recommend that, in addition to the original definition, ODTs be considered solid oral 

preparations that disintegrate rapidly in the oral cavity, with an in-vitro disintegration time of 

approximately 30 seconds or less, when based on the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) 

disintegration test method or alternative (see section IV). 

 

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 CDER Data Standards Manual. 

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Contains Nonbinding Recommendations 

Although the value of 30 seconds is given as a desired result, it is not intended to represent an 

arbitrary distinction between an ODT and some other tablet form. It is instead representative of 

a general time period associated with drug products that have been found to have performance 

characteristics appropriate for a disintegrating tablet meant to be taken without chewing or 

liquids. 

 

We recommend that as a primary consideration when developing this type of product, you use 

the defining characteristics for this dosage form designation (rapid disintegration in saliva 

without the need for chewing or liquids). Products should be developed to match these 

characteristics, rather than labeling a tablet as an ODT because it would eventually disintegrate 

when placed in the mouth. For example, tablets that take longer than 30 seconds to disintegrate 

or are dosed with liquids may be more appropriately considered to be chewable or oral tablets. 

Additional parameters for consideration during product development are tablet size, tablet 

weight, component solubility, and the effect these factors have on the product’s intended use. 

While tablet size or weight is not explicitly included in the definition, you should consider the 

effect large tablets have on patient safety and compliance. We generally recommend that the 

weight of the tablet not exceed 500 mg; however, if a tablet intended for use as an ODT weighs 

more than 500 mg, its ability to perform effectively as an ODT should be justified based on 

product performance. For such products, the extent of component solubility (e.g., tablet residue, 

need for liquids) can influence the acceptability of the product being labeled as an ODT. 

 

IV. DISINTEGRATION TESTING 

Part of the process of determining if a product is an ODT involves testing a product to see how 

long it takes to disintegrate. Determination of disintegration time appears to be method 

dependent. Some methods are more discriminating than others. To provide both a standard for 

and consistency in disintegration testing, we recommend that applicants use the USP method for 

disintegration testing.3 However, other methods that can be correlated with or are demonstrated 

to provide results equivalent to the USP method also can be used and submitted to determine 

disintegration time. 

 

3 USP 29, <701> Disintegration, pp. 2670-2672. 

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