Design and Ev aluation of Mucoadhesive Buccal Patches of Venlafaxine

Bioadhesive buccal delivery system is one of substitute to the oral route of drug administration; particularly drugs that are undergoing first pass effect. The rationale of this study was to develop a mucoadhesive buccal patch system containing drug venlafaxine with different ratios of polymeric systems like hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose E15, hydroxypropyl cellulose, methyl cellulose and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose by the solvent casting technique using propylene glycol as plasticizer. The physicochemical compatibility of the drug and the polymers were studied by FTIR and studies suggested absence of any incompatibility. Formulated buccal films were physically evaluated for thickness, weight variation, drug content, folding endurance, surface pH, swelling index, bioadhesive strength, in vitro residence time and in vitro drug release. All prepared Original Research Article Asif et al.; BJPR, 6(2): 96-106, 2015; Article no.BJPR.2015.053 97 formulations indicated good physical stability. Ex vivo permeation studies of optimized formulation was performed by using Franz diffusion cells. The release profile of venlafaxine followed zeroorder and first-order kinetics in different formulations. However, the release of the drug from optimized formulation A12 (R 2 = 0.9913 for Higuchi) was governed by diffusion mechanism and showed highest bioadhesive strength and in vitro residence time.