Drug membrane transport enhancement using high energy drug polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) co-precipitates

Abstract

Dissolution rate data obtained with sulfathiazole-povidone(PVP) co-precipitates and hydrocortisone-povidone co-precipitates were compared to cellophane membrane diffusion data obtained with the co-precipitates. The hypothesis, that the rate-limiting drug phases in the co-precipitate dissolution experiments were high energy amorphous phases of the drug, was tested. In regions of the dissolution rate studies where the carrier effects due to the PVP-drug complexes were small, the dissolution rates for the two PVP-drug systems agreed well with the results of the membrane diffusion experiments. The normalized fluxes were found to be about 3.5 for the high energy phase of sulfathiazole and 14-18 for that of hydrocortisone.