Preparation and Evaluation of anti-viral drug Zanamivir using different polymers

The dosage forms that stay in the stomach for longer period of time are much more effective to treat any disease. Thus, most approachable and feasible way is to prolong the drug delivery and controlling gastric residence time (GRT) and such kind of dosage forms are known as gastro retentive dosage forms (GRDF). The present study is focused to develop GRDF of Zanamivir. About four formulations of Zanamivir tablets were prepared with different ratios of drug and polymers. The prepared tablets were further evaluated on the basis of precompression and post-compression parameters. The dissolution study of the formulations revealed that formulation F3 using polymer (guar gum) showed 93.4% of in vitro drug release for 8 hours and is the optimized formulation. It was thus concluded that guar gum complies all the properties of floating tablets. Keywords: Zanamivir, Dissolution, Gastro retentive drug delivery system, First pass elimination, Influenza, Prophylaxis