From the viewpoint of inverse problem, the optimization of drug release based on the multi-laminated drug controlled release devices has been regarded as the solution problem of the diffusion equation initial value inverse problem. In view of the ill-posedness of the corresponding inverse problem, a modified Tikhonov regularization method is proposed by constructing a new regularizing filter function based on the singular value theory of compact operator. The convergence and the optimal asymptotic order of the regularized solution are obtained. Then the classical Tikhonov regularization method and the modified Tikhonov regularization method are applied to the optimization problem of the initial drug concentration distribution. For three various desired release profiles (constant release, linear decrease release and linear increase followed by a constant release profiles), better results can be obtained by using the modified Tikhonov regularization method. The numerical results demonstrate that the modified Tikhonov regularization method not only has the optimal asymptotic order, but also is suitable for the optimization and design of multi-laminated drug controlled release devices.