The overall objectives of theis research are: (1) to increase to the apparent water solubilities and dissolution rates of water-insoluble drugs as to enhance their bio-availability, absorption and therapeutic efficacy by incorporating them in water-soluble polymers; (2) to investigate the interactions of drugs with the polymers and to develop an understanding of the dispersion morphologies; (3) to characterize the release of the drugs from the solid dispersions as a function of polymer molecular weight, drug loading and pH of the release medium; (4) to incorporate the solid dispersions in oral controlled-release (CR) systems that provide the delivery of the drugs at controlled rates over a specified time, where delivery is controlled by the device and not by the intrinsic water solubility of the drug; (5) to characterize the overall drug release rates with regard to the device parameters. The specific objectives of the proposed work are: (1) to incorporate griseofulvin (gris)/polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) dispersions in matrix CR systems, (2) to characterize the overall drug release rates with regard to device parameters, and (3) to expand work in this area to include nifedipine, foscarnet, amiodarone and taxol.
