FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF A pH DEPENDENT MULTI-PARTICULATE COLON TARGETED DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM USING POWDER LAYERING TECHNOLOGY OF KETOPROFEN

Multiparticulates consist of discrete, small, multiple unit systems of active pharmaceutical ingredients exhibiting the desired drug release pattern. The present work is concerned with the formulation and evaluation of a pH-dependent multiparticulate colon targeted drug delivery system of ketoprofen, a well established anti-inflammatory drug used in the management of inflammatory bowel disease. The reason for carrying out this study was to release the drug at a targeted site of the large intestinal region of the gastrointestinal tract on the basis of pH variability and to improve patient compliance. The drug-loaded pellets were fabricated using powder layering technology and thereafter pH-dependent multiparticulates were prepared by employing a mix polymeric coating of pH-dependent Eudragit S100 and Eudragit L100 polymers over the drug-loaded pellets. Different ratios of these pH-dependent polymers were used in the formulations of the coated drug-loaded pellets. The developed pellets were assessed for technical parameters such as drug entrapment efficiency, in-vitro dissolution study, scanning electron microscopy, FTIR, and DSC study. The in-vitro release kinetics reveals that the optimum formulation batch follows anomalous transport towards zero-order kinetics, which is further confirmed by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model.