Design, development, in vitro evaluation and pharmcokinetic studies of bioadhesive buccal patches for pioglitazone and glimepiride

The buccal film know-how has arisen as an advanced substitute to the other conventional types of drug delivery systems. The buccal mucosa is a suitable route of administration. In this study, a bioadhesive buccal therapeutic system using Glimepiride and Pioglitazone to prolong the residence time at its point of administration. The FTIR studies showed no chemical incompatibility between drugs and excipients. The DSC of the product showed two separate peaks for Pioglitazone and Glimepiride, indicating no potential incompatibility. It was found that the breadth of all buccal films ranges from 0.28 to 0.30 mm. In all formulations, drug content was determined to be in the range of 1.97 to 2.02 mg for glimepiride and 14.95 to 15.01 mg for pioglitazone. Total percentage of cumulative of drug released from all formulations are from 64.12% to 87.0% for glimepiride and 70.0% to 92.2% for pioglitazone. The predicted values by the model agree with actual values. The drugs were released for 12 h, and  it was found to be Cmax  for pioglitazone was 467.5 ng/mL and for glimepiride was 65 ng/mL. Tmax  was determined  for pioglitazone was three h and for glimepiride was 2.8 h. The drugs are released for 12 h AUC of pioglitazone is 4031.25 h ng/mL, and AUC of glimepiride is 505 h ng/mL. Buccal patch for glimepiride and pioglitazone was prepared successfully.