Formulation of Immediate Release Tablets of Rabeprazole Sodium by Using Tablet in Tablet Technology

Rabeprazole provided effective control of gastric acid in patients with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux. The present work was carried out to improve the therapeutic efficacy of Rabeprazole by expediting its onset of action. Rabeprazole is unstable in acidic environment which requires the drug in immediate release tablet to be delivered in an alkaline environment to enhance the in vivo stability of Rabeprazole. The tablets were prepared by using Tablet-in-Tablet technology, in which the drug was present as inner core and the buffer as the outer layer. A total of four inner core formulations were prepared by direct compression method and evaluated for their physical parameters. Outer core formulation was prepared using wet granulation method. A total of six tablets in tablet formulations were prepared using A4 as the best inner core formulation depending upon its disintegration time. The prepared tablets were film coated by using Insta moist shield film coating material, to protect the formulation from moisture absorbance. All the six formulations were evaluated and Batch F6 was selected as best formulation and compared with the reference product. The developed tablets were found to be superior to the existing immediate release formulations by providing macro pH environment instead of micro pH ambience with less buffer content.