Abstract
Objective
To evaluate in vitro quality of enteric-coated 50 mg diclofenac sodium tablet formulations on Saudi market.
Results
A reference and seven generic (G1-7) formulations were commercially available in December 2019/January 2020 and were assessed within 25–75% of manufacture-expiration period. Weight variation (range as% difference from mean, n = 20), active substance content (ASC, mean (SD) as% difference from label, n = 20), hardness (mean (SD), n = 10), and friability (% weight loss, n = 20) were 97–103%, 102.0% (3.4%), 15.4 (1.1) kg, and 0.24%, respectively, for the reference. For G2-7, they were ≤ ±5%, 98.6% (4.0%) to 109.9% (1.8%), 11.9 (0.9) to 18.3 (0.8) kg, and ≤ 0.00 to 0.75%, respectively. G1 ASC, hardness, and friability were 111.3% (1.7%), 20.1 (1.7) kg, and 1.10%, respectively. Disintegration time (n = 6) and dissolution profile (n = 8) were also determined. No formulation disintegrated or released ˃ 0.1% of label ASC in 0.1 N HCl for 2 h. The reference disintegrated in 15:00 min:seconds and released a mean (range) of 100% (99–103%) of label ASC by 45 min in phosphate buffer (pH = 6.8). G1-7 disintegrated in 8:53 to 20:37 min:seconds and released 81% (69–90%) (G1) to 109%. Except for borderline performance of G1, all formulations passed in vitro quality tests according to United States Pharmacopoeia.
Assessment of the pharmaceutical quality of marketed enteric coated pantoprazole sodium sesquihydrate products
