Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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BILAYER TABLETS FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING SUITABLE TABLET SUBDIVISIONS

SHADI F. GHARAIBEH 1*, LINDA TAHAINEH 2

1 Faculty of Pharmacy, Jerash University, Jerash 26150, Jordan
2 Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan

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Tablets can be subdivided by patients for several reasons. However, these subdivisions are not guaranteed to produce acceptable splits using the known subdivision techniques. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the use of bilayer tablets to obtain suitable tablet subdivisions. Bilayer tablets of two formulations were evaluated. The bilayer tablets were produced by compaction of 250 mg of powder at 43 MPa followed by compaction of an additional 250 mg of the same powder at 43 MPa. Each of the evaluated bilayer tablets was either composed of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) or a mixture of MCC and caffeine. Subdivisions were performed by pressing the metal tip of a lancet on the edge of the bilayer tablet at the interface between the layers. Properties of the bilayer tablets and the subdivided layers were determined. Furthermore, the friability of the bilayer tablets was tested. It was found that the produced bilayer tablets lost less than 1% of their weight and did not delaminate during the friability test. Moreover, it was found that two almost intact tablets were subdivided from each bilayer tablet. The weight of each subdivision was close to 50% of the weight of the whole bilayer tablet. The standard deviations of the percentage weights of the subdivisions were less than or equal to 0.15%. Therefore, it was possible to subdivide bilayer tablets to produce tablet splits with relatively high accuracy and precision.