S J Shankar

Fast-dissolving tablets (FDTs) are a new type of oral dose form that breaks down quickly in the mouth without water. They are great for kids, older adults, and people who have trouble swallowing. The goal of this study was to improve the formulation of FDTs using paracetamol as a model drug. It did this by using a 3² full factorial Design of Experiments (DoE) to look at how the concentrations of superdisintegrant and binder affected important quality factors like disintegration time, hardness, friability, and drug release. Direct compression was used to make nine formulations (F1–F9), which were then tested using standard pharmacopeial assays. Using ANOVA for statistical analysis, we found that higher quantities of superdisintegrant made the tablets break down faster and release the medicine better, while the amount of binder affected how hard the tablets were. Formulation F7 (6% superdisintegrant, 2% binder) had the best profile of all, with a disintegration time of 25 seconds and 98.3% drug release. The study shows that DoE is a good way to optimize the development of strong, patient-friendly FDTs that work well.

Floating Drug Delivery Systems (FDDS) offer a promising approach for enhancing the gastric retention time of orally administered drugs, especially those with a narrow absorption window in the upper gastrointestinal tract. This study aimed to formulate and evaluate FDDS tablets using different concentrations of hydrophilic polymers and gas-generating agents to ensure prolonged gastric residence and sustained drug release. Four formulations were prepared by direct compression and assessed for physical properties, buoyancy behavior, swelling index, drug content uniformity, and in vitro drug release over 12 hours. Among them, Formulation F4 demonstrated optimal performance, exhibiting the shortest floating lag time (25 seconds), longest floatation (>12 hours), highest swelling index (162%), and maximum cumulative drug release (96.7%). One-way ANOVA confirmed statistically significant differences in drug release and swelling index among the formulations (p