Claims
- 1. A dosage form for an active agent comprising:
a wall defining a cavity, the wall having an exit orifice formed or formable therein and at least a portion of the wall being semipermeable; an expandable layer located within the cavity remote from the exit orifice and in fluid communication with the semipermeable portion of the wall; a drug layer located within the cavity adjacent the exit orifice and in direct or indirect contacting relationship with the expandable layer; and a flow-promoting layer interposed between the inner surface of the wall and at least the external surface of the drug layer located within the cavity.
- 2. The dosage form of claim I wherein the drug layer contains at least 40% by weight of drug based on the weight of the drug layer.
- 3. The dosage form of claim 1 wherein the expandable layer comprises an osmotic agent.
- 4. The dosage form of claim 3 wherein the flow-promoting layer comprises a material selected from hydrogels, gelatin, polyethylene oxides of less than 100,000 MW, hydroxyalkylcelluloses having number average molecular weights of between 9,500 and 1,250,000, and hydroxyalkyl alkylcelluloses having number average molecular weights of between 80,000 to 850,000, and mixtures thereof.
- 5. The dosage form of claim 1 wherein the flow-promoting layer is adapted to facilitate release of at least 80% of the drug in the drug layer to the environment of use.
- 6. An article of manufacture comprising a compressed drug composition overcoated with a flow-promoting layer.
- 7. The article of claim 6 comprising an expandable layer in direct or indirect contact with the drug composition and forming a bilayer core with the drug composition, the bilayer core being overcoated with the flow-promoting layer.
- 8. The article of claim 7 wherein the flow-promoting layer comprises a material selected from hydrogels, gelatin, polyethylene oxides of less than 100,000 MW, hydroxyalkylcelluloses having number average molecular weights of between 9,500 and 1,250,000, and hydroxyalkyl alkylcelluloses having number average molecular weights of between 80,000 to 850,000, and mixtures thereof.
- 9. The article of claim 7 wherein the flow-promoting layer comprises an hydroxypropyl cellulose.
- 10. A method of facilitating the release of a drug from a dosage form comprising a compressed drug composition, a semipermeable wall and a push layer, the method comprising interposing a flow promoting layer between the semipermeable wall and the compressed drug composition.
- 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the flow promoting layer comprises a coating on the compressed drug composition prepared from a hydroxyalky cellulose and a lower alkanol.
CONTROLLED DELIVERY OF ACTIVE AGENTS
[0001] This application claims the priority of provisional application Serial No. 60/106,739, filed Nov. 2, 1998, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60106739 |
Nov 1998 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09430837 |
Nov 1999 |
US |
Child |
10001116 |
Nov 2001 |
US |