Development and Evaluation of Naproxen Sodium Extended Release Tablets

This research work was aimed to avoid side effects of the drug by extended drug release approach. The naproxen pellets were prepared by extrusion-spheronization method and then these spheres were coated with release control polymer, ethyl cellulose and pH dependent polymer Eudragit L-100. The pre-compression parameters were evaluated by angle of repose, bulk density, tapped density, Carr's index and hausner's ratio. Then these pellets were compressed with extra-granular material to obtain pellet-based naproxen tablets. The prepared tablets were further coated with Opadry- II white using standard coating pan method. In- vitro drug release studies of the coated tablets were carried out in different dissolution media i.e., 0.1N HCl, phosphate buffers of pH 4.5, 6.8 and 7.5. The mechanism of drug release was found to follow Higuchi diffusion model. The drug release follows first order kinetics. The stability studies were conducted at accelerated storage conditions of 40 degreesC+/-2 degreesC/75%+/-5% RH for a period of 2 months.