Tablets compressed with gastric floating pellets coated with acrylic resin for gastro retention and sustained release of famotidine: in-vitro and in-vivo study

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to prepare a disintegrating gastric floating tablet composed of floating pellets coated with acrylic resin to prolong the gastric residence time and increase the oral bioavailability of famotidine. METHODS: The gastric floating pellets containing famotidine, stearyl alcohol and microcrystalline cellulose (1 : 10 : 1) were prepared by extrusion-spheronization process and coated with acrylic resin, then compressed into tablets with Avicel PH 301 pellets and cross-linked polyvinylpyrrolidone. The coating weight, volume ratio of Eudragit RL30 D and RS30 D and solid content of coating fluid were optimized by Box-Behnken design. KEY FINDINGS: In 0.1 M HCl, tablets can immediately disintegrate into pellets which can remain floating and sustained drug releasing over 12 h. The AUC0-∞ of famotidine gastric floating pellets (7776.52 ± 1065.93 h ng/ml) administered into rats was significantly higher than that of marketed rapid release tablets Xingfading® (Xingyi, Shanghai, China) (4166.23 ± 312.43 h ng/ml), while the relative bioavailability was 187.01 ± 22.81%. CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results indicated that the optimized formulation did offer a new gastro retention and sustained release approach to enhance the oral absorption of famotidine.