Reliability of a Novel Model for Drug Release from 2D HPMC-Matrices

Abstract

A novel model of drug release from 2D-HPMC matrices is considered. Detailed mathematical description of matrix swelling and the effect of the initial drug loading are introduced. A numerical approach to solution of the posed nonlinear 2D problem is used on the basis of finite element domain approximation and time difference method. The reliability of the model is investigated in two steps: numerical evaluation of the water uptake parameters; evaluation of drug release parameters under available experimental data. The proposed numerical procedure for fitting the model is validated performing different numerical examples of drug release in two cases (with and without taking into account initial drug loading). The goodness of fit evaluated by the coefficient of determination is presented to be very good with few exceptions. The obtained results show better model fitting when accounting the effect of initial drug loading (especially for larger values).

Keywords

• Drug release
• Diffusion
• Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose swelling
• Finite element to modeling
• Difference scheme