Formulation, development and evaluation of taste mask abacavir hcl using chitosan microbeads in flavoured gel

The purpose of this research was to mask the bitter taste of Abacavir HCl by formulating Microbeads. Taste masking was accomplished by initially formulating tasteless micro beads of abacavir HCl using chitosan, sodium alginate and gellan gum by polyelectrolyte complexation method. These microbeads was converted into gellan gum based flavoured gel. Gels were packed in metered dose squeeze container which can dispense the required amount of gel equivalent to the dose of drug. The gel can then be added to yoghurt, biscuits and breads or can be consumed as such. No significant changes in FTIR spectroscopy and DSC study. Practical yield was found to be 93.50%. The chitosan- gellan gum spherical microbeads formulations showed desirable drug entrapment efficiencies (60.10-91.30%) and invitro release (89.37%) in 24hrs. Formulation AG5 gel consisting of 0.3% gellan gum and 0.3% sodium citrate was considered as an optimum batch. Stability studies indicated no considerable changes in pH, viscosity and appearance of the optimised AG5 formulation. The product was finally dispensed in a metered dose container as well as in sachets. The results of the present study indicated that this novel oral gel containing microbeads of Abacavir HCL with an acceptable taste is feasible for paediatric patients.