Formulation And Evaluation Of Pimozide Buccal Mucoadhesive Patches

Pimozide is an anti-psychotic agent whose bioavailability is 40-50% because of first pass metabolism. The tmax of pimozide after oral administration is 4-12 hr, which is long and variable. Hence, Pimozide is a suitable drug for buccal drug delivery. log P of pimozide is 5.3432. Pimozide patches were prepared using HPMC (15 & 47 cps), carbopol 934, PVA, and PVP. FTIR and UV spectroscopic methods revealed no interaction between pimozide and polymers. The patches were evaluated for their thickness uniformity, folding endurance, weight uniformity, content uniformity, swelling behaviour, tensile strength, and surface pH. Data of in vitro release from patches were fit to different equations and kinetic models to explain release kinetics. Kinetic models used were zero and first-order equations, Hixon-Crowell, Higuchi and Korsmeyer-Peppas models. Good correlation among in vitro release and in vivo absorption of pimozide was observed. Short-term stability study revealed that drug content decreased in various patches.