Montmorillonite-alginate microspheres as a delivery vehicle for oral extended release of Venlafaxine hydrochloride

Extended release of drugs is extremely essential for patients who require medicinal treatment round the clock. Depressed patients are one of such patients who suffer from recurrent and chronic disorder requiring long-term treatment. The treatment for such disease lies in the use of anti-depressants. Venlafaxine hydrochloride (VF) is an effective third generation drug which is capable of inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. This highly water soluble drug (534 mg/ml) has a short steady state elimination half-life of 4–5 h due to which this drug needs to be administrated 2 to 3 times in a day in order to maintain its required concentration in the blood plasma. The present study aimed at developing montmorillonite (Mt) alginate (ALG) biopolymeric composites as micro beads with 97% encapsulation efficiency for an oral extended release of VF. These micro beads were synthesized using in situ ion-exchange followed by ionotropic gelation technique. The in - vitro release profile of pure drug shows a rapid burst release followed by 100% cumulative release within 5.5 h and 3.5 h in the gastric and intestinal fluid respectively. Whereas, the in - vitro release profile of VF from Mt biopolymeric beads show substantially less burst release with cumulative release of 20% (over a period of 26 h) and 22% (over a period of 29 h) in the gastric and intestinal fluid respectively. The presence of clay not only reduces the burst effect but also results in extended release of drug. Thus, there is possibility of making a formulation for oral extended release dosage forms for Venlafaxine with better patient compliance as repeated intake (every 3–4 h) of drug will not be necessary.

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