Formulation and In Vitro Evaluation of Flurbiprofen Fast Dissolving Tablets using Sublimation Method

Abstract

Formulation of oral fast dissolving tablets is not only to give fast relief but also to overcome difficulty in swallowing tablets and capsules, resulting in non-compliance and effective therapy. Present study is intended to formulate the sublimated fast dissolving tablets of flurbiprofen by incorporating super disintegrating agent. Flurbiprofen is a poorly soluble, highly permeable drug and the rate of its oral absorption is often controlled by the dissolution rate in the gastrointestinal tract. There are several techniques to enhance the dissolution of poorly soluble drugs, in which the sublimation method is a simple and promising technique among the other techniques. Flurbiprofen fast dissolving tablets were prepared by using direct compression method and were characterized for both pre- compression and post-compression parameters to comply with pharmacopoeial limits. The percent drug release in 15 min (Q 15 ) and initial dissolution rate (IDR) for optimized formulation F6 was 92.38±1.18%, 6.16%/min. These were very much higher compared to conventional tablets (22.92±0.47%, 1.53%/min). The improvement in the dissolution characteristics of a drug described in terms of dissolution efficiency (DE) and relative dissolution rate (RDR). The RDR was found to be 3.98 for F6. The DE was found to be 53.44 for F6 and it is increased by 4.5 fold with optimized FDT formulation when compared to conventional tablets. Thus developed fast dissolving tablets by sublimation method may be suitable to give rapid drug delivery and rapid onset of action. Further the efficacy of the developed formulations has to be assessed by pharmacokinetic studies in humans.