Design and Evaluation of bilayer tablets of Pioglitazone and Metformin

Diabetes mellitus is a major and growing health problem in almost all countries. Globally, the number of people with diabetes will increase from 135 to 300 million people by 2025. The consumption of antidiabetic drugs is also increased. The conventional dosage forms are as such not suitable for the maintenance of glucose levels for prolonged period of time. So the concept of bilayered tablet technology is utilized for delivering two drugs having synergistic effects for biphasic drug release. A bilayer tablet comprises of two layers among which the first layer is immediate release (IR) layer provides initial burst release and the second layer is sustained release (SR) layer provides slow sustained release that maintain the steady state concentration of drug in the blood for a prolonged period of time. Thus this research work successfully developed as a matrix tablets with biphasic drug release to maintain the desired blood glucose levels in diabetic population.