¹College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dayananda Sagar University, Pharmaceutics, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
²Faculty of Pharmacy, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India DOI : 10.29228/jrp.298 Fenofibrate is an anti-hyperlipidemic agent with poor water solubility and poor bioavailability of 30%. The goal of this study was to develop and optimise floating microspheres of Fenofibrate utilising an emulsion solvent diffusion method in order to improve absorption and oral bioavailability of the medicine for a better approach in treating hyperlipidemic conditions using ethyl cellulose as a polymer. At the preliminary stage four formulations were prepared by changing the polymer ratio and keeping the stirring speed, stirring time and solvent composition constant. Based on the results obtained batch 2 was considered as an ideal batch. The data from this batch was used at the middle level of a Taguchi orthogonal array design to optimise the formulation, and the effect of independent variables such as A (Polymer concentration), B (Stirring speed), C (Stirring time), and D (Ethanol concentration) on dependent variables such as particle size, percentage yield, drug loading, buoyancy, and drug release was investigated. All the microspheres showed good buoyancy for 24 h in simulated gastric fluid and controlled release of drug for 12 hours. The optimized formulation was spherical in shape as confirmed by photographs from scanning electron microscopy. The in vitro release data were fitted into various kinetic models and the possible release mechanism was found to follow Korsmeyer-Peppas model. The results suggest that Fenofibrate floating microspheres provides modified drug release for treating hyperlipidemia and can be used successfully for development of sustain release formulation. Keywords : Fenofibrate; Ethyl Cellulose; Eudragit RL100; Anti-hyperlipidemic; Taguchi design