delayed release
Delayed release is about waiting for the right moment, not slowing things down. The drug sits dormant after you swallow it, then is released all at once a while later — typically once the dose has passed the stomach and reached the more neutral environment of the small intestine.
The classic way to achieve this is an enteric coating: an acid-resistant polymer film that stays intact in the stomach's low pH but dissolves once pH rises past the coating's threshold further down the gut. The drug inside is then released essentially like an immediate-release dose, only later and in a different place.
Delayed release protects acid-labile drugs from the stomach, shields the stomach lining from irritant drugs, or targets a region such as the colon. It differs from extended release: a delayed-release product releases its whole dose in a burst after a lag, whereas extended release spreads the dose out over time. The two can be combined, for example a delayed-then-extended profile.
Enteric-coated aspirin is a delayed-release product: it passes through the stomach intact, then dissolves and releases in the small intestine to reduce gastric irritation.
A lag that protects both drug and stomach.
Enteric coating is the most common delayed-release strategy, but a lag can also be built with erodible plugs, swelling layers, or timed-rupture coatings.