DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF CARBAMAZEPINE LOZENGES

Lozenges are the flavoured solid, unit dosage medicated dosage forms usually in the sweetened base intended to be sucked and held in the mouth or pharynx containing one or more medicaments.  Lozenges were developed in 20th century and is still under commercial production. These are medicated confections designed for local as well as systemic therapy. Carbamazepine (CBZ) is an anticonvulsant drug used in the treatment of epilepsy and neuropathic pain. It is used in schizophrenia along with other medications. In the present study an attempt has been made to prepare and evaluate the sugar based medicated Carbamazepine lozenzes to  improve bioavailability and increase patient compliance specially for those patients who have difficulty in swallowing. The lozenges were prepared using sucrose as base; HPMC K4M, methyl cellulose were used as polymers. Eudragit was used as taste masking agent. Formulations were prepared by heating and congealing method on laboratory scale All the formulations prepared were subjected to various physicochemical parameters like hardness, friability, weight variation,  drug content and in vitro dissolution studies. Stability studies of selected formulations of batch CL4 were also carried out at 40/75% relative humidity for 6 months for a period of six months. There wasn’t any substantial interaction between the drugs, flavor and color and other parameters and the prepared formulations were found to be stable.