Oral Disintegrating Tablets of Analgesic Drugs alone and in Combination for Pain Management

Abstract

Oral disintegrating tablet (ODT) is the highly accepted oral drug delivery system due to its patient compliance. Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience usually treated with an analgesic. As the rapid onset of action is desirable with analgesic drugs, the present research work was attempted to develop individual and combination ODTs of lornoxicam (LX) and paracetamol (PCM). Bitterness of PCM was masked by co-grinding with Eudragit EPO whereas the taste of LX was masked either by forming inclusion complex with betacyclodextrin induced circular dichroism or by solid dispersion with Eudragit E100. ODTs were prepared by direct compression method using croscarmellose sodium, crospovidone and low substituted hydroxy propyl cellulose as disintegrants. In vitro drug release studies of ODTs were performed in simulated salivary fluid, 0.1 N HCl and modified dissolution media. Selected formulations were assessed for in vivo disintegration time and taste masking in healthy human volunteers. The optimized formulation was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and by powder X-ray diffraction. As indicated by the above findings, the goal of the present study of developing a patient friendly, taste-masked, rapid pain relieving formulations amenable to large scale manufacture has been successfully achieved.