Nicardipine hydrochloride (NIC) is a calcium channelblocking agent that is effective in the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension, angina pectoris and cerebral disease. However, its conventional formulation undergoes rapid absorption and extensive biotransformation in the liver, and has a short elimination half-life (about 90 min) 1) Plasma NIC concentration often fluctuates significantly and adverse reactions such as syncope are consequently induced. Thus, for the purpose of alleviating adverse reactions due to over-absorption and improving dosing compliance, we investigated on the development of the long-acting formula of NIC-LA ® . Sustained release formulations have already been developed for several drugs, and the following formulation techniques have been used: combining large amounts of a substance that hardly disintegrates in stomach or intestines, coating granules and tablets with a hydrophobic additive, coating a drug with a semipermeable membrane, and formation of a solid dispersion system with insoluble or hydrophilic polymer substances by means of mixing, adsorption and/or binding.
2)However, in the case of drugs like NIC, which is very insoluble in intestinal fluid, the above techniques merely reduce the bioavailability and cannot be expected to realize sustained release of the drug. Thus, Yuksel et al. have investigated formula to regulate the release of NIC in the stomach and to increase the solubility in intestinal fluid.3-5) Ohmura et al., on the other hand, have focused on the fact that the solubility in intestinal fluid is 43 to 47 mg/ml for amorphous NIC and 5 to 8 mg/ml for crystal NIC, and they found that sustained release could be obtained by making NIC amorphous without adding any excipients, thereby improving solubility in intestinal fluid.6) Based on this notion, the NIC-LA ® formula was developed, and by controlling the ratio of crystal NIC and amorphous NIC in this formula, suitable NIC plasma levels can be maintained (C max ϭ0.8 h and 6.0 h, and the elimination half-lifeϭ7.6 h), even when the frequency of administration is reduced.
6,7)Drugs can be made amorphous by procedures such as grinding, lyophilization, spray drying, fusion and solvent evaporation.8-10) Ohmura et al. developed the NIC-LA ® by mixing enteric granules consisting of 100% amorphous NIC prepared by a vibration ball mill and conventional gastric granules consisting of 100% crystal NIC at a ratio of 7 : 3.
6)The amorphous NIC content of this formula, which affects the efficacy and safety of NIC-LA ® , can be confirmed by controlling the quantities of gastric granules and enteric granules during the formulation process. On the other hand, in the NIC-LA ® formula developed by Shibahara et al., the sustained release granules, which are obtained by drying a suspension of light anhydrous silicic acid (LASA) and carboxy methylethylcellulose (CMEC) in a 20% aqueous ethanol solution dissolving about 40% of crystal NIC, were used as enteric granules, and these granules were coated with pulverized sustained release granu...