EVALUATION OF USP BASKET AND PADDLE DISSOLUTION METHODS USING DIFFERENT GENERIC ATENOLOL TABLETS

Atenolol is a widely used drug for treating heart conditions available worldwide under various trade names by several generic pharmaceutical manufacturers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the dissolution performance of several commercially available generic atenolol tablets using both basket and paddle methods described in the United States Pharmacopeia-National Formulary (USP-NF), USP 33-NF 28. The substantial differences in dissolution performance observed among the atenolol oral dosage forms tested have implications concerning the equivalency and standards of multisource products available on the international market. The paddle method was found to be simple and produced more reliable and reproducible release profile of all generic brands compare to basket method.