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Abstract Abstract Atorvastatin (ATV) is a cholesterol-lowering drug that belongs to the class of synthetic hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, known as statins. It is indicated in the treatment of atherosclerosis and coronary disease alone or along with other lipid-lowering medicine. It reduces plasma cholesterol levels since it inhibited the synthesis of HMG-CoA reductase, an early rate-limiting step in cholesterol biosynthesis. ATV belongs to biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS) class II drugs with poor solubility and high permeability Thus, although ATV is rapidly absorbed after oral administration, its poor aqueous solubility (practically insoluble) can make its absorption dissolution rate limited. Owing to the low solubility of ATV, its oral bioavailability is only around 12%. Therefore, development of ATV formulation in virtue of low solubility and oral bioavailability is challenging. Among those solubility enhancement technologies is solid dispersion (SD) technique. The most important feature of solid dispersion technology is that the drug was highly dispersed in suitable carriers. Solid dispersion could enlarge the surface of the drug particles, which results in enhancing the drug release. This study is mainly aimed to enhance the solubility, dissolution rates and oral bioavailability of ATV by solid dispersion method using microwave technique in its preparation. |