Over the past two decades, pharma’s acute focus on the patient has driven great innovation and investment in ways to deliver active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in finished drug products. Every aspect of the dose and formulation, colour and size, taste and texture, controlled release, and dosing frequency, can have an impact on therapeutic performance Oral administration is the most convenient method of drug administration for patients due to the ease and flexibility of dosing. Rob Pratt and Dáire O’Donnell at Pfizer explain why this makes it the route preferred by health care providers and drug developers.