습식 과립을 통해 용해도가 개선된 나프록센 나트륨 제형 설계

Recently, many patients are suffered from arthritis including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis due to increment in genetic disease and aging. Most patients with arthritis have a relatively low health-related quality of life (HRQL) due to persistent pain. For the treatment of pain, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used and among them, naproxen sodium (NAP) is typically applied. NAP has merits in inhibiting cyclooxygenases 1 and 2 (COX-1, COX-2), enzymes involved in the production of prostaglandin (PG) which cause fever, inflammation, and pain, and has a relatively long half-life of 12 h. However, NAP is a biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS) class 2 drugs with low solubility and high absorption by oral administration of 275~550 mg per time, twice a day. Herein, the low solubility of NAP was improved by wet granulation of the water-soluble polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-K30), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), starch, and NAP. The improved morphology and solubility of NAP was confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Overall results showed enhanced solubility of NAP through the wet granule formation and showed promising treatment for arthritis as immediate release medicinal effects.