ABSTRACT

Sumatriptan succinate (SS) is a drug used in the treatment of migraine headaches, but suffers from low patient compliance due to its unpalatable bitter taste. The purpose of the present work was to prepare taste-masked oro dispersible tablets (ODTs) of SS by incorporating drug loaded microspheres into tablets for use in patients experiencing difficulty in swallowing. Microspheres loaded with SS were prepared by solvent evaporation technique. Eudragit EPO, a pH-sensitive aminoalkylmethacrylate copolymer, was used for coating the drug particles, acetone as solvent for the polymer and light liquid paraffin as an encapsulating medium. Drug : polymer ratio of 1:1 was considered to be optimized formulation with a yield of 99.96%, entrapment efficiency of 61.55%, particle size ranging from 30.32 – 90.96μm and in vitro drug release of 85.06% within an hour. FTIR studies suggested absence of drug-excipient interaction. Tablets prepared by direct compression containing microspheres and effervescent agents were evaluated for pre-compression and post-compression parameters. The wetting time, in vitro dispersion time and in vitro disintegration time of the tablets were found to be 39 sec, 35 sec and 32 sec, respectively. The drug release from the tablet was about 85.44% within an hour. The SEM of final ODTs revealed that the microspheres remained intact even after compression. Stability studies indicated that the selected formulation was stable. The results obtained suggested that effective taste-masking was achieved for SS using the technique of microencapsulation and ODTs of acceptable characteristics were obtained by adding effervescent agents followed by direct compression.

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