Development of an enteric coating formulation and process for tablets primarily composed of a highly water-soluble, organic acid

The purpose of this study was to define coating conditions for the enteric coating of a highly water soluble, acidic tablet core. Acidic tablet cores containing a marker drug were separated into three groups and seal coated to coverage levels of 0% (uncoated, white), 1% (yellow), and 3% (tan) weight gains. By employing, a 'color coding' scheme, the different seal coated tablets could be coated simultaneously to reduce the number of experiments and eliminate potential differences that may exist during separate coating processes. In addition, an allotment of each coded tablet type was sequentially numbered with a marker pen, weighed, and recorded in order to identify the precise level of enteric coating as well as to monitor the variability of a given coating operation. The tablets were coated with five Eudragit(R) L30D-based enteric formulations containing different amounts of plasticizer (10-20 parts) and talc (10-50 parts). During each enteric coating process, a predetermined amount of labeled tablets were removed after attaining 6, 8, and 10% weight gains. The labeled tablets were re-weighed, sorted, and then tested using USP disintegration and dissolution methods. Weight gain measurements of individual tablets indicated low coating variability (6.2% RSD) during the enteric coating processes. Dissolution results revealed that all enteric coat formulations inhibited drug release for 2 h in 0.1 N HCl. In contrast, it was found that tablets without a seal coat failed the USP disintegration test. In addition, seal coated tablets exhibited ca. 1.5-5 fold greater drug release at most intermediate sampling time points in phosphate buffer, pH 6.8, than tablets without a seal coat, suggesting that the dissolution of the latter was delayed by the generation of an acidic microenvironment at the interface of the enteric coat/acidic tablet core. Prior to enteric coating an acidic, highly water soluble substrate, a seal coat barrier should be applied to prevent retardation in drug release. A simple strategy utilizing color coding and tablet marking can be employed to test the effect of a seal coat, evaluate enteric coating formulations and process with minimal experimentation and analyses. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.