Membrane Drug Transporters Research Articles

Drug membrane transport enhancement using high energy drug polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) co-precipitates

Dissolution rate data obtained with sulfathiazole-povidone(PVP) co-precipitates and hydrocortisone-povidone co-precipitates were compared to cellophane membrane diffusion data obtained with the co-precipitates. The hypothesis, that the rate-limiting drug phases in the co-precipitate dissolution experiments were high energy amorphous phases of the drug, was tested. In regions of the dissolution rate studies where the carrier effects due to the PVP-drug complexes were small, the dissolution rates for the two PVP-drug systems agreed well with the results of the membrane diffusion experiments. The normalized fluxes were found to be about 3.5 for the high energy phase of sulfathiazole and 14–18 for that of hydrocortisone.