FORMULATION, OPTIMIZATION AND EVALUATION OF FEBUXOSTAT LOADED SNEDDS FOR TREATING GOUT

Febuxostat (FXT), used for treating gout, is poorly soluble and is susceptible to enzymatic degradation when administered as tablets. The current study aims to formulate, optimize and develop a stable Liquid self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (L-SNEDDS) and Solid SNEDDS to improve solubility, resulting in enhanced bioavailability and further to formulate Self-Nano emulsifying Osmotic Pump Tablets (SNEOPT) for controlled drug release. A ternary plot was constructed with Capmul MCM (oil phase), Tween 80 (surfactant), and PEG 400 (co-surfactant). Further optimization was done by D-Optimal design. Optimized L-SNEDDS (F8) was then converted to S-SNEDDS by the adsorption method. Aerosil 200 was used as an adsorbent. The L-SNEDDS and S-SNEDDS were characterized and evaluated. The particle size of the optimized batch was 97.25 nm (L-SNEDDS) and 155.2 nm (S-SNEDDS). In-vitro dissolution studies showed>75% release in pH 1.2 HCl buffer and >80% in phosphate buffer pH 7.4 in 1 hour. SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) studies indicated spherical particle morphology. SNEOPT was prepared by direct compression (with NaCl as the osmogent). In-vitro release from SNEOPT showed zero-order drug release kinetics. The developed formulation was found to be superior to pure FXT with enhanced solubility, which signifies that a lipidic system is an efficacious drug delivery system for treating gout.