Formulation and Evaluation of Vaginal Bioadhesive Drug Delivery System of Acyclovir

Acyclovir is an anti-viral, which has been used in the treatment of vaginal disorder. Acyclovir is almost completely absorbed after oral administration but has low bioavailability of about 10-15% because of first pass metabolism. As first pass metabolism removes approximately 85-90% of the drug, so for clinical efficacy of the drug it should be frequently administered. Hence an attempt has been made to produce sustained release dosage form of the acyclovir which can be specifically employed for the treatment of vaginal disordered by Herpes simplex virus. The Mucoadhesive tablets of acyclovir has been prepared by direct compression methods and evaluated for various parameter such as thickness, friability, hardness, drug content, weight variation, swelling index, surface pH, bioadhesive force, bioadhesive time, drug release etc. The kinetic data was applied to the optimized formulations. So formulation of acyclovir in a vaginal mucoadhesive tablet dosage form will decrease the frequency of administration, which can lead to an improvement in patient adherence and thereby improving its clinical efficacy.