Solid Dispersion Approach Improving Dissolution Rate of Stiripentol: a Novel Antiepileptic Drug

Abstract

Some drugs have low bioavailability due to their poor aqueous solubility and/or slow dissolution rate in biological fluids. Stiripentol (STP) is a novel anticonvulsant drug that is structurally unrelated to the currently available antiepileptics. It has poor aqueous solubility and its solubility has to be enhanced accordingly. Polyethyleneglycol 6000 (PEG-6000) is commonly utilized as a hydrophilic carrier for poorly water soluble drugs in order to improve their bioavailability. STP and PEG-6000 binary system was obtained by physical mixture, solvent evaporation, co-evaporation and melting methods using different weight ratios. The properties of the prepared binary systems were evaluated using dissolution rate, phase solubility, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies. The FTIR spectroscopic studies showed the stability of STP and absence of STP-PEG-6000 interaction. The DSC and SEM studies indicated the amorphous state of STP in its binary systems with PEG-6000.