A Mucoadhesive Gastroretentive Dosage Form for Valacyclovir

Objective: The objective of the present work was to formulate a gastroretentive dosage form of Valacyclovir, an anti viral drug. Methods: Valacyclovir gastroretentive mucoadhesive tablets were prepared using polymers such as Carbopol 974P and hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) K4M, in different proportions by wet granulation technique. Compatibility studies were performed by FTIR spectroscopy. The prepared granules were evaluated for bulk density, Carr’s index, Hausner’s ratio, friability, drug content uniformity, hardness, thickness and post compression parameters. Results: Results revealed that all the formulated tablets have acceptable physical properties. Based on the in vitro release profile, the formulation B3, containing HPMC (46%), Carbopol (15%) with a drug release of 96.98% was chosen as the optimized batch. The B3 formulation was subjected for zero order and first order kinetics, Higuchi matrix and peppa’s model. It was found to be adherent to the Higuchi model, as the r Original Article A MUCOADHESIVE GASTRORETENTIVE DOSAGE FORM FOR VALACYCLOVIR RAVITEJA GUNDA, V V S NARAYANA REDDY KARRI, MAHENDRAN BASKARAN, MEGHANA G, G. N. K. GANESH* Department of Pharmaceutics, JSS College of Pharmacy, Ootacamund, JSS University, Mysore, India. Email: [email protected]