Formulation and Evaluation of Buoyant tablets loaded with Nanosponges containing entrapped Cefditoren pivoxil

Background The main objective of this research was to develop a novel gastroretentive formulation for Cefditoren pivoxil, an insoluble and poorly permeable drug. Floating and drug release characteristics of tablets formulated with pure Cefditoren pivoxil were compared with the same of formulations loaded with nanosponges (NS) form of drug. Results Test results related to physicochemical properties of all prepared tablets were observed to be in compliance with standards. More floating lag time and less log time have been resulted from the formulations with pure form of drug (F1 to F4), whereas, vice-versa was found with NS based dosage forms (F5 to F8). An evaluation test for in-vitro drug release was performed for all the dosage units and more controlled release pattern with diffusion mechanism was seen from tablets loaded with NS. F7 with a combination of NS form of drug and Guar gum in 1:1 ratio has shown best buoyancy and more controlled drug release among all 8 tablet compositions. Conclusions The importance and need for entrapment of an insoluble, less permeable drug to obtain the fruitful buoyant and drug release properties from Gastroretentive tablet dosage forms has been witnessed by all the observed results.