methylcellulose and methacrylic-acid

Capsules are a widely used oral dosage form due to their simplicity and ease of manufacture. They are equally popular for both pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products and since they do not need extensive formulation development, it is a dosage form of choice for new drugs undergoing animal or clinical trials. In addition to the standard hard-gelatin or cellulose-based vegetarian capsules, functional capsules such as those with built-in gastroresistance would be of great value. In this work, commonly used enteric polymers were investigated for the production of hard-capsules. The polymers used in this study included cellulose derivatives (HPMC AS-LF and HP-55) and acrylic/methacrylic acid derivatives (EUDRAGIT L100 and S100). A range of concentrations of polymers and plasticisers were tested to optimise the formulation for the production of capsule shells with desirable physicochemical and gastroresistance characteristics. Drug release from optimised capsules produced from HPMC AS-LF, HP-55, EUDRAGIT L100 and S100 was shown to be comparable to drug release from corresponding polymer-coated tablets in both compendial and physiological bicarbonate buffer. In summary, herein we report a simple method for producing enteric capsule shells which do not need an additional coating step which, if validated at large scale, can significantly reduce the cost of manufacturing of conventional enteric coated dosage forms. These capsules are also likely to improve the inter-tablet variability in post-gastric drug release inherent in conventional dosage forms due to coating variability.

Topics: Bicarbonates; Buffers; Capsules; Cellulose; Chemistry, Pharmaceutical; Delayed-Action Preparations; Drug Delivery Systems; Drug Liberation; Excipients; Gelatin; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Methacrylates; Methylcellulose; Polymers; Polymethacrylic Acids; Solubility; Tablets

The release of dextromethorphan hydrobromide from matrices containing hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC K100LV) and methacrylic acid copolymer (Eudragit L100-55) has been evaluated at different ratios of the polymers. The physicochemical properties (including weight, thickness, crushing strengh, friability and disintegration time) were also determined at 1000, 2000 and 4000 p compression forces. No significant differences in weight uniformity and thickness values were observed between the different formulations. The crushing strength of the tablets increased with increasing compression force and it reached a constant level at 4000 p. The formulations containing only HPMC K100LV resulted in an extended release pattern, however, Eudragit L100-55 alone could not effectively prolong the drug release. A combination of HPMC K100LV and Eudragit L100-55 in a 1:1 ratio at the 40% level provided an almost similar drug release profile than the marketed product.

Topics: Acrylic Resins; Algorithms; Antitussive Agents; Dextromethorphan; Drug Compounding; Excipients; Hardness; Hypromellose Derivatives; Methacrylates; Methylcellulose; Solubility; Tablets