Fast-dissolving tablets of glyburide based on ternary solid dispersions with PEG 6000 and surfactants

Marketed glyburide tablets present unsatisfying dissolution profiles that give rise to variable bioavailability. With the purpose of developing a fast-dissolving tablet formulation able to assure a complete drug dissolution, we investigated the effect of the addition to a reference tablet formulation of different types (anionic and nonionic) and amounts of hydrophilic surfactants, as well as the use of a new technique, based on ternary solid dispersions of the drug with an hydrophilic carrier (polyethylene glycol [PEG] 6000) and a surfactant. Tablets were prepared by direct compression or previous wet granulation of suitable formulations containing the drug with each surfactant or drug:PEG:surfactant ternary dispersions at different PEG:surfactant w/w ratios. The presence of surfactants significantly increased (p<0.01) the drug dissolution rate, but complete drug dissolution was never achieved. On the contrary, in all cases tablets containing ternary solid dispersions achieved 100% dissolved drug within 60 min. The best product was the 10:80:10 w/w ternary dispersion with PEG 6000 and sodium laurylsulphate, showing a dissolution efficiency 5.5-fold greater than the reference tablet formulation and 100% drug dissolution after only 20 min.