Formulation development and characterization of cellulose/ polyacrylic acid – based polymers on the release of celecoxib from extended release tablets

Abstract

The study was aimed to formulate an extended release matrix tablets of celecoxib and to investigate the influence of different types and concentration of polymers on release of drug. Six formulations namely F1 – F6 were manually designed using different proportions of polymers. The matrix tablets formulations (F1 – F5) were composed of using different polymers such as, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC-K4M), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), ethylcellulose (EC-10 cps) and Carbopol-940, whereas plain tablets formulation (F6) without polymer contained microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), lactose monohydrate, sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-K30). The MCC, SLS and PVP-K30 were used in a fixed quantity in all formulations except F6 i.e. 20.7%, 6.7%, and 2%, respectively. Multiple point dissolution was performed in phosphate buffer of pH 7.4. Dissolution profiles indicated that formulations F2 and F3 extended the drug release up to the desired time period of 12 h. DD Solver (an add-in software for MS Excel) was used to analyze the dissolution profile data for drug release kinetics such as first order, Zero-order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer–Peppas models. However, formulation (F3) containing HPMC – K4M as a matrix former showed concentration-independent drug release as highest linearity was observed when zero-order model was applied (R2 = 0.933). Release mechanism of formulations F3 was super case-II transport. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to assess the drug polymers compatibility and no drug– excipients interaction was found. The present study accomplished that ethylcellulose and HPMC can be used successfully to develop an extended release matrix tablet formulation.