Preparation and in vitro/in vivo Evaluation of Lacidipine by Adsorption onto Fumed Silica Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

The aim of this study was to design a silica-supported solid dispersion of lacidipine (LCDP) to enhance the dissolution rate and oral absorption using supercritical CO2 (scCO2) as a solvent. The formulation was characterized using differential scanning calorimetry, powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. In the dissolution test, LCDP-scCO2 formulation showed a significantly enhanced dissolution compared with LCDPsilica physical mixture and a faster dissolution rate than Lacipil® under different dissolution conditions. In an in vivo test, the area under concentration-time curve and Cmax of LCDP-scCO2 formulation was 9.23 and 23.78 fold greater than LCDP-silica physical mixture (1:15, w/w), respectively, whereas the corresponding values were 1.92 and 2.80 fold greater than Lacipil®, respectively. Our results showed that the solid dispersion prepared by supercritical fluids technology is a feasible method to enhance the oral bioavailability of LCDP.