Formulation design and optimization of novel fast dissolving tablet of chlorpheniramine maleate by using lyophilization techniques

Fast dissolving tablets (FDTs) have received more interest in the pharmaceutical industry for those categories of drug which show slow dissolution and less oral bioavailability. Nowadays various technologies have been developed for FDTs with improved patient compliance and convenience. FDTs tablets provide an advantage particularly for the pediatric and geriatric patients who have difficulty in swallowing and also for that who are travelling for a long and suffers from lack of water availability. Lyophilization (freeze-drying) is a process in which water is sublimated from the product after freezing at a specific temperature and pressure. Lyophilization technique is used in order to improve the dissolution of the given substance and improve the oral bioavailability of the drugs with poor solubility and high permeability. In this work, chlorpheniramine maleate FDTs was formulated by lyophilization method. The prepared tablets were subjected to various evaluation such as hardness (2.4-2.9 kg/cm2), friability (0.68-0.79%), disintegration time (10-19 s), drug content (95.32-99.09%), water absorption ratio (31-53%), wetting time (64-106 s) and in-vitro drug release shown in 5 min (96.04-99.92%). FTIR studies showed that there is no interaction between drug and polymer. Stability studies showed that there is no change in drug content within three and six months. Results revealed that fast dissolving tablets of chlorpheniramine maleate prepared by lyophilization method result in rapid dissolution.