Taste-masking assessment of orally disintegrating tablets and lyophilisates with cetirizine dihydrochloride microparticles

Orally disintegrating tablets and oral lyophilisates are novel attractive dosage forms that disintegrate or dissolve in the buccal cavity within seconds without necessity of drinking. The major limitation in designing of these dosage forms is unpleasant taste of the drug substance. Cetirizine dihydrochloride is a H(1)-antihistamine substance indicated for the treatment of allergy. It is characterized by extremely bitter taste, therefore in order to deliver cetirizine dihydrochloride using orodispersible formulations, effective taste-masking is required. The aim of this study was to investigate whether microparticles containing cetirizine dihydrochloride could be successfully used to formulate orally disintegrating tablets by direct compression method and oral lyophilisates by freeze-drying process. Taste masking of cetirizine dihydrochloride was achieved by the spray-drying technique using Eudragit(®) E PO as the drug agent carrier. Based on the preliminary studies, optimal compositions of microparticles, tablets and lyophilisates were chosen. Obtained dosage forms were characterized for drug content, disintegration time and mechanical properties. In order to determine whether the microparticles subjected to direct compression and freeze-drying process effectively mask the bitter taste of cetirizine dihydrochloride, the in vivo and in vitro evaluation was performed. The results showed that designed formulates with microparticles containing cetirizine dihydrochloride were characterized by appropriate mechanical properties, uniformity of weight and thickness, short disintegration time, and the uniform content of the drug substance. Taste-masking assessment performed by three independent methods (e-tongue evaluation, human test panel and the in vitro drug release) revealed that microparticles with Eudragit(®) E PO are effective taste – masking carriers of cetirizine dihydrochloride and might be used to formulate orally disintegrating tablets and oral lyophilisates.