Abstract

DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF ATORVASTATIN CALCIUM EXTENDED RELEASE TABLETS

*Natarajan R., Abirami M. and Murugananthan G.

ABSTRACT

Atorvastatin calcium is an antihyperlipidemic agent which acts as the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor. The objective of the present study is to determine the release of Atorvastatin calcium from the extended release tablets. The Fourier Transform Infrared study indicates that there is no interaction between the drug and polymer. The tablets were prepared by wet granulation technique by using different polymers such as Xanthan gum, Polyvinylpyrollidone and Ethyl cellulose in various concentrations. The prepared extended release tablets were evaluated for thickness, hardness, friability, drug content, in-vitro drug release and kinetic studies. From the release studies Xanthan gum at higher concentration shows better release rate when compared to the Polyvinylpyrollidone and Ethyl cellulose at higher concentration. The drug release kinetic data confirmed that all the formulation fit in to zero order release, which shows the R2 value of 0.942 to 0.997. The results of the in-vitro release data were fitted to the korsemeyer peppa‟s equation to analyse the release pattern of the drug from the polymeric system. The „n‟ value was found to be more than 1, indicating that the drug release follows case II transport mechanism. All the formulations compared with marketed formulations to study the similarity factor. It can be concluded that natural polymer was showing better release rate compared to the synthetic polymer and found to be similar.

Keywords: Atorvastatin Calcium, Xanthan Gum, Polyvinylpyrollidone, Ethyl Cellulose, Extended Release, Similarity Factor.