FORMULATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF LANSOPRAZOLE DR PELLETS BY FLUID BED COATING TECHNIQUE
Pellets are agglomerates of fine powders or granules of bulk drugs and excipients. They consist of small, free flowing, spherical or semi-spherical solid units, typically from about 0.5mm to 1.5mm, and are intended usually for oral administration. Pellets can be prepared by many methods, extrusion, powder layering suspension layering process being the most widely used today. Lansoprazole enteric coated pellets were formulated using fluidized bed processer. Three separate layers like, drug layer, barrier layer, and enteric layer were coated onto the inert core pellets. The formulated micro pellets were undergone invitro dissolution studies and the results were compared against the reference product. Various other characters, such as surface morphology, bulk and tapped density, Angle of repose, friability, moisture content, and drug content, were also studied in the optimized pellets. The comparisons between the optimized pellets (F14) and a reference product yielded f1 and f2 values within a range of 3.69 and 72.78, respectively, formulated micro pellets showed delayed in vitro dissolution behavior, due to optimized concentration of polymer and excipients in all the three layers. The micro pellets drug was stable at room temperature, 40°C/75% RH as per ICH guidelines, after 3 months