Formulation and Evaluation of Glimepiride Microparticles

Glimepiride [1-4] is the only third generation sulphonyl urea, which lowers the blood glucose level in the healthy subjects as well as in patients with type II diabetes. After oral administration, Glimepiride is completely (100%) absorbed from the GI tract. Studies with single oral doses in normal subjects and with multiple oral doses in patients with type II diabetes have shown significant absorption of Glimepiride within 1 hour after administration and peak drug levels (Cmax) at 2 to 3 hours. Due to its low biological half life, it requires frequent administration to maintain plasma concentration. This leads fluctuations in plasma concentration and also causes inconvenience to the patient. Therefore, development of controlled release dosage forms would clearly be beneficial in terms of decreased dosage requirements, thus increase patient compliance. Microencapsulation is a well known method for the preparation of microparticles for controlled release. Among the various methods developed for formulation of microparticles, solvent evaporation method is one of the mostly widely used one to formulate Microparticles because of its ease of fabrication without compromising the activity of drug [5]. In the present investigation Eudragit RLPO is used as a rate retardant polymer. Eudragit RLPO is a water Journal of Comprehensive Pharmacy