FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT OF VENLAFAXINE HYDROCHLORIDE EXTENDED RELEASE PELLETS BY EXTRUSION SPHERONIZATION METHOD

Omprakash Bagdiya, Ajay Kumar Sav* and Purnima Dhanraj Amin

Venlafaxine hydrochloride is an antidepressant drug used to treat various mental disorders. Single layer or double layer coating generally used method to prepare extended release pellets of Venlafaxine hydrochloride. In current work, extended release pellets of Venlafaxine was prepared by extrusion spheronization method using combination of hydrophobic low melting wax and hydrophilic polymers as release retarding agent. This method avoids the process of layering or film coating. The optimized capsule formulation containing Venlafaxine hydrochloride pellets (F10) was evaluated for physical properties like size distribution, surface morphology and Invitro drug release. The developed capsule formulation was found to be complying with the marketed formulation Venlor XR ® (37.5 mg) with respect to dissolution Invitro drug release profile and physical property. SEM study showed that formulation comprised of sphere pellets of uniform size. Dissolution data was found to be best fitted in Higuchi equation revealed that drug releases by diffusion mechanism. The optimized batch (F10) was found to be stable for period of stability study.