Effect of Curing and Compression Process on the Drug Release of Coated Ion-Exchange Resin Complexes

Abstract

Ion exchange resins can be one of the good carriers for sustained drug release. However, the sustained release may not be enough only with themselves and hence film coating with rate controlling polymers can be applied to have a further effect on the drug release. Due to the environmental and economic issues of organic solvent for the polymer coating, aqueous polymeric systems were selected to develop dosage forms. Among the many aqueous polymeric dispersions for the film coating, EC(ethylcellulose) based polymers such as Aquacoat(R) ECD and Surelease(R) were evaluated. A fluid-bed coating was applied as a processing method. The drug release rate was quite dependent on the coating level so the release rate could be modified easily by changing different levels of the coating. The drug release rate in the Aquacoat (R) coated resin particles was strongly dependent on curing, which is a thermal treatment to make homogeneous films and circumvent drug release changes during storage. After dissolution test using the compressed tablets in which the coated resin particles are contained, inhomogeneous coating and even pores could be observed showing that the mechanical properties of EC were not resistant to granulation and compaction process. However, when tablets were prepared in different batches, the release profiles were almost identical showing the feasibility of the coated resin particle as incorporated into the tablet formulation.