Formulation development and investigation of ibuprofen controlled release tablets with hydrophilic polymers and the effect of co-excipients on drug release patterns.

The aim and objective of the present study was to formulate and evaluate controlled release polymeric tablets of ibuprofen with determinations of formulation factors using various grades and types of polymer ethocel i.e. ethocel standard 10P; 10FP, 100P and100FP for their release rates and release patterns in suitable media and also the mechanism involved in the release of drug from the matrices. The effect of several co-excipients was also studied on the drug release rates and patterns of Ibuprofen from the polymeric matrices. Ibuprofen-ethocel CR tablets were prepared at three different D: P ratios i.e. 10:1, 10:2 and 10:3. The effects of co-excipients were studied only in formulations having D: P ratio of 10:3. In vitro drug release studies of ibuprofen-ethocel controlled release matrix tablets were carried out in phosphate buffer pH 6.8 using pharma test dissolution apparatus adopting rotating basket method according to USP. Different kinetic models were applied to the release data of test formulations in order to investigate the release mechanism of drug from the controlled release matrix tablets. The release patterns of ibuprofen-ethocel CR matrices were compared with reference conventional ibuprofen tablets and ibuprofen SR tablets. F2 similarity factor was applied to the test formulations and reference standard to compare their similarities. The drug formulations studied exhibited satisfactory release results.