A predictive model for the release of slightly water-soluble drugs from HPMC matrices.

A model to predict the fraction of slightly water-soluble drug released as a function of release time (t, h), HPMC concentration (C(H), w/w), drug solubility in distilled water at 37 degrees C (C(s), g/100 mL), and volume of drug molecule (V, nm3) was derived when theophyline, tinidazole, and propylthiouracil were selected as model drugs. The model is log (M(t)/M(infinity)) = 0.8683 logt-0.1930C(s) logt + 0.5406V logt-1.227C(H) + 0.1594C(s) + 0.4423C(H)C(s) - 0.8655 (n = 130, r = 0.9969), where Mt is the amount of drug released at time t, Minfinity is the amount of drug released over a very long time, which corresponds in principle to the initial loading, n is the number of samples, and r is the correlation coefficient. The model was validated using sulfamethoxazole and satisfactory results were obtained. The model can be used to predict the release fraction of variousslightly water-soluble drugs from HPMC matrices having different polymer levels.