Formulation and Evaluation of Floating Tablets of Pioglitazone Hydrochloride

Pioglitazone Hydrochloride is an oral anti-diabetic agent, which acts primarily by increasing insulindependent glucose disposal. There is a need for sustained release Pioglitazone formulations, which overcome the various problems associated with the use of this drug in the prevention and treatment of diabetes. In the present work efforts have been made to develop floating drug delivery system for Pioglitazone Hydrochloride containing HPMC of different viscosity grades and poly vinyl pyrollidine to achieve a sustained release for 24 hrs. The tablets of all formulation were subjected to various physico – chemical evaluation parameters such as thickness, diameter, weight variation, hardness, friability, drug content, in-vitro buoyancy lag time, total floating time, tablets density, swelling index and in-vitro dissolution study. The results of all these tests were found to be satisfactory within the prescribed limits. The formulations showed higher R2 values for zero order plots indicating that drug release followed zero order kinetics and drug release from these floating tablets were by both diffusion and erosion.