A general code to predict the drug release kinetics from different shaped matrices

This work deals with the modeling of drug release from solid pharmaceutical systems (matrices) for oral delivery. The attention was paid to the behavior of matrices made of hydrogels and drug, and the modeling was devoted to reproduce all the relevant phenomena (water up-take, gel swelling, diffusivity increase, drug diffusion and polymer erosion). Thus, the transient mass balances (for both drug and water), with the proper initial and boundary conditions were written, and a generalized numerical code was formulated; it is able to describe several geometries (slab, sphere, infinite and finite cylinders; this latter was done by an approximation which reduces the 2D problem to an 1D scheme). The main phenomena observed in drug delivery from hydrogel-based matrix, i.e. polymer swelling and erosion, were taken into account. The code was validated by comparison with analytical solutions, available for some simplified situation, and then it was tested with some experimental data taken from literature. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.