No abstract

Multiparticulate drug delivery systems are mainly oral dosage form, consist of small discrete units that exhibit different characteristics especially in release pattern and drug bioavailability. These systems are represented by granules, pellets, microspheres, microcapsules, and minitablets. Pellets offer high flexibility in the design, formulation, and development of oral dosage forms such as sachet, suspension, capsule, and tablet. Multiparticulate tablets manufactured by compaction of multiple unite pellets is one of the latest and, yet, challenging technologies. Multiparticulate tablets combine the benefits of both a tablet and a pellet-filled capsule in one dosage form but their manufacturing experience many difficulties. The oral multiparticulate products consist of polymer-coated subunits or pellets, which are embedded in an inert excipients’ matrix, formulated to overcome the difficulty in administering capsules and improve the physicochemical stability of suspension and offer predictable release and uniform distribution in the gastro-intestinal tract compared to the plain tablet. This review discusses the advantages and drawbacks of MUPS, the properties of an ideal MUPS, various pharmaceutical applications of MUPS, the challenges and key variables that to be considered in the tableting process for successful production of MUPS Keywords: MUPS®, Pellets, Multiparticulate tablets.

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a widely used antiepileptic drug to control grand mal epilepsy, as well as for the treatment of peripheral neuralgia. According to the biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS), CBZ is considered a class II drug. CBZ is characterized by a slow and irregular gastrointestinal absorption, with irregular oral bioavailability; due to its low water solubility. Therefore, the release of the drug from the dosage form (tablets in this study) and the subsequent step of dissolution represent the most important parameters that decide whether a sufficient plasma concentration will be achieved or not. In the current study, the FTIR study for the pure API, CBZ, and the different commercially available brands of CBZ conventional tablets, available in the Iraqi drug market (Mosul city as an example), were examined. Subsequently, various quality control parameters such as the weight variation, content uniformity, friability, and hardness of the conventional CBZ tablets were conducted. Moreover, the disintegration and the dissolution tests of the different brands of CBZ available in the Iraqi drug market were performed. Keywords: Antiepileptic Drug, Bioequivalence; Epilepsy; Generic; Brand vs generic; IVIVC; QC