Formulation and evaluation of etoricoxib oral disintegrating thin films

Abstract

Oral  drug  delivery  has  been  known  for  decades  as  the  most  widely utilized route   of  administration   among   all   the   routes   that   have   been explored  for  the systemic delivery  of  drugs  via  various  pharmaceutical products  of  different  dosage forms. Fast dissolving drug delivery system offers a solution for those patients having difficulty in swallowing tablets/capsules. Etoricoxib is a selective COX-2 inhibitor used to relieve moderate post-surgical dental pain as a short-term treatment and inflammatory and painful symptoms of various forms of arthritis. Although oral disintegrating tablets have an advantage of administration without choking and  fast  disintegration;  the  disintegrated  materials  contained  in  them  are insoluble and remain until swallowing. In such cases formulation of oral disintegrating thin films was advantageous. In the    present    work, oral thin films of   Etoricoxib were designed with a view to enhance patient compliance by solvent casting method. In the solvent casting method,   Croscarmellose sodium (2, 4 and 6 % w/w), Crospovidone (10 and 15%   w/w)   as  super disintegrants  were  used in different concentrations with Gelatin, Poly vinyl alcohol as a film forming base for the formulation of oral disintegrating thin films of Etoricoxib  by solvent casting method. The prepared formulations of films were evaluated for film thickness measurement, folding endurance study, in-vitro disintegration time, in-vitro drug release pattern (in 6.8pH Buffer). Drug content, Short-term stability (40^oC/ 75% RH for 3 months) and drug-polymers interaction study (IR spectroscopy).  Among all the formulations, the  formulation(F8) prepared by 4% Crospovidone show good drug release(99.27%).