FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF CANDESARTAN CILEXETIL IMMEDIATE RELEASE TABLETS

Abstract

Candesartan Cilexetil is an esterified prodrug of Candesartan, a non-peptide angiotensin II type-1(AT1) receptor antagonist used in the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure. Candesartan meets the requirement of high potency but it is poorly absorbed when administered orally. Therefore, the prodrug Candesartan Cilexetil is developed. It is soluble in methylene chloride, half life is 5.1 to 10.5hrs and bioavailability is 15%. It is marketed as conventional tablets. In this work, it is formulated as immediate release tablets by changing the concentration of ingredients. For many drug substances, conventional immediate-release formulations provide clinically effective therapy while maintaining the required balance of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles with in acceptable level of safety to the patient. The immediate release formulation of Candesartan Cilexetil is prepared by wet granulation method to provide rapid onset of action. In order to optimize the best formulation, ten different trials are developed. The main ingredients used in the formulation are lactose monohydrate, PEG, calcium CMC and MCC. Weight variation, thickness, friability, disintegration time, in-vitro release, pharmaceutical assay are studied as response variables. The formulation containing 38% of MCC is selected as an optimized product in which the different physical properties and in-vitro release profile showed best comparable results with innovator product.