Development and evaluation of agar based modulated release multiparticulate drug delivery systems of metformin hydrochloride

Abstract

Controlled delivery of recommended dose of drug through an appropriate route of administration to the site of absorption in a manner to achieve the desired concentration in blood or tissue, which is therapeutically effective and non-toxic, for extended period of time in order to get maximum patient compliance and least side effects especially in case of the drugs with narrow therapeutic index, shorter biological half life and in treatment of chronic diseases is desired in modern sophisticated therapeutics. Fabrication of drug formulations for controlled delivery

of water soluble drug like Metformin hydrochloride has been a challenge to pharmaceutical scientists due to their tendency to escape out of the system causing low drug entrapment. In the present investigation, a novel thermal-shock method is proposed and evaluated to prepare agar based drug loaded microspheres of Metformin hydrochloride. The results have shown excellent drug entrapment and modulated release from the fabricated microcarries, for the possible scale-up to industrial use.