European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF GLIMEPRIDE TRANSDERMAL PATCHES USING SYNTHETIC POLYMERS

Pallavi Vadlamudi*, G. V. Radha and Rama Rao Nadendla

ABSTRACT

One of the thrust areas in drug delivery research is transdermal drug delivery systems (TDDS) due to their characteristic advantages over oral and parenteral drug delivery systems. Development of functional delivery systems is a challenging task. Transdermal drug delivery involves the transport of drug across the skin. Optimal physiochemical properties are required in drug candidates for delivery via transdermal patches. Traditional transdermal patches can be divided into two categories – reservoir-based and matrix-based, according to their physical structure. Transdermal drug delivery offers advantages like patient compliance, avoidance of firstpass metabolism, and large surface area of skin over which to deliver the drug, quick termination of dosing, etc. However, only a few drug products with optimum characteristics have been successfully marketed to deliver a drug through the skin. This study concentrates on matrix-based transdermal drug delivery systems, formulated using glimepride and polymers in different ratios. The release of glimepride appears to be dependent on hydrophilicity of the matrix. Moderately hydrophilic matrices showed best release. The predominant release mechanism of drug through the fabricated matrices was believed to be by diffusion mechanism. The release of glimepride from the optimized formulation F4 follows zero order kinetics and the mechanism of drug release was concluded as diffusion controlled.

Keywords: Transdermal patches, Matrix-based, Reservoir-based, Patient Compliance, Optimal physiochemical properties.