Acta Pharm. 53 (2003) 251-261

In vitro and in vivo evaluation of the Gelrite^® gellan gum-based
ocular delivery system for indomethacin

JAGDISH BALASUBRAMANIAM,¹   SHRI KANT² and  JAYANTA KUMAR PANDIT^1* 

jkpandit@banaras.ernet.in

¹Department of Pharmaceutics, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005, India
²Department of Ophtalmology, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005, India

The poor bioavailability and therapeutic response exhibited by the conventional ophtalmic solutions due to pre-corneal elimination of the drug may be overcome by the use of in situ gel forming systems, which upon installation as drops into the eye undergo a sol-gel transition in the cul-de-sac. This may result in better ocular availability of the drug. The purpose of this work was to develop an ophthalmic delivery system of the NSAID indomethacin, based on the concept of ion activated in situ gelation. Gelrite^® gellan gum, a novel ophtalmic vehicle, which gels in the presence of mono or divalent cations present in the lacrimal fluid, was used as the gelling agent. The developed formulations were therapeutically efficacious (in a uveitis induced rabbit eye model) and provided sustained release of the drug over an 8-hours period in vitro.

Keywords: gellan, indomethacin, ocular delivery