Characterization of gliclazide-polyethylene glycol solid dispersion and its effect on dissolution

The present study was initiated with the objective of studying the in vitro dissolution behavior of gliclazide from its solid dispersion with polyethylene glycol 6000. In this work, a solid dispersion of gliclazide with polyethylene glycol was prepared by the fusion method. in vitro dissolution study of gliclazide, its physical mixture and solid dispersion were carried out to demonstrate the effect of PEG 6000. Analytical techniques of FT-IR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffractometry were used to characterize the drug in the physical mixtures and solid dispersions. The dissolution studies of solid dispersion and physical mixture showed greater improvement compared to that of the pure drug. The mechanisms for increased dissolution rate may include reduction of crystallite size, a solubilization effect of the carrier, absence of aggregation of drug crystallites, improved wettability and dispersbility of the drug from the dispersion, dissolution of the drug in the hydrophilic carrier or conversion of drug to an amorphous state. The FT-IR spectra suggested that there was no interaction between gliclazide and PEG 6000 when prepared as a solid dispersion. DSC and XRD study indicated that the drug was converted in the amorphous form.