Concentration profile for the dissolution of drug tablets undergoing simultaneous degradation

An empirical approach to the concentration-time history of a dissolving drug has resulted in a cube-root equation in which the characteristic constant of the equation embodies the important physical variables of the system. This expression has been used to study the dissolution of a drug that degrades simultaneously in the test solution. An alternative representation of the dissolution process is first-order kinetics. These two approaches are compared by fitting the experimental data of the dissolution of digoxin and melphalan tablets in various media, and a new method for the proper analysis of data for the dissolution of tablets that simultaneously degrade in the test solution is presented.This work was supported by Grant CA-17094 from the National Cancer Institute, and a donation by Burroughs Wellcome Company, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.