Design And Optimization Studies Of Tablet In Tablet Formulation Of Diclofenac And Misoprostol: Application Of Response Surface Methodology And Compressional Behaviour Strategy

Abstract

The present study was aimed to develop compression coated tablets of diclofenac sodium (75mg) in the inner core and misoprostol (200 mg) as the outer shell for the effective treatment of rheumatoid arthritis as this dosing frequency is not available in the market yet. Diclofenac sodium inner tablet was manufactured by wet granulation and its enteric coating was applied by Eudragit L 100-55, Isopropyl Alcohol and Opadry II Blue 85 F205034. While immediate-release misoprostol outer shell was also manufactured by wet granulation and coated by Opadry white and Polyethylene glycol 6000. Design of experiment® software was used for formulation design and optimization. Quality attributes such as tablet weight, hardness, disintegration time, percent drug dissolution and assay were performed as per official methods and satisfactory results were reported. Physical and chemical stability of selected formulations was evaluated following the ICH guidelines for accelerated stability testing. The compressional analysis of optimized formulation was performed to check the optimum compression pressure to obtain a stable formulation. Based on satisfactory quality attributes; formulation DF9MF7 was successfully developed as compression coated tablet with calculated shelf life of 4.8years. Compression coated tablets comprising of enteric coated diclofenac sodium as inner core and misoprostol as outer shell were successfully developed by wet granulation.