White Paper: Effect Of Superdisintegrants On Dissolution Of Cationic Drugs

In spite of the increased focus and interest generated in the area of controlled release and targeted drug delivery system in recent years, tablet dosage forms that are intended to be swallowed whole, disintegrate, and release their medicaments rapidly in the gastrointestinal tract still remain the formulation of choice from both a manufacturing as well as a patient acceptability point of view. Thus, a drug given in the form of a tablet must undergo dissolution before being absorbed and eventually transported into systemic circulation. For most of the tablet dosage forms, disintegration precedes drug dissolution. Superdisintegrants such as croscarmellose sodium, sodium starch glycolate (SSG), and crospovidone are now frequently used in tablet formulations to improve the rate and extent of tablet disintegration and thus improve the rate of drug dissolution.

The behavior of superdisintegrants in various tablet formulations has been investigated by many researchers. The majority of this research has been directed at the function-related properties of the superdisintegrants with special emphasis on correlating these properties to disintegrant efficiency and drug release.