84FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF SUSTAINED RELEASE MICROSPHERES OF FINASTERIDESustained release oral product namely Microspheres for Finasteride prepared by Ionotropic gelation technique to overcome the drug-related adverse effects like gastric irritation, improve its bioavailability in different gastrointestinal pH conditions. Total nine formulation batches (F1-F9) were formulated using sodium alginate alone and combination with s o d i u m CMC, and pectin polymer as drug release modifiers in various proportions and investigate for physicochemical properties and drug release potential. All investigated properties showed satisfactory results. While increase in the concentration of sodium alginate and other polymer dispersions increased sphericity, size distribution, flow properties and mean diameter of the Microspheres. The drug entrapment efficiency obtained in the range 70.4% to 95.2%. Increase in the concentration of calcium chloride was significantly affects the mean diameter but no appreciable change in morphology and drug release behavior. In-vitro study proves that drug release slowly increases as the pH of the medium is increased. The drug release in batch F1, F2 and F3 showed more faster release than F7, F8, F9 but optimum sustained release was observed in the batch F4, F5, F6 containing sodium alginate coated with Pectin. The mechanism drug release from Microspheres was found to be following Case-II transport. From the study it was concluded that controlled release Finasteride Microspheres can be developed successfully by using ionotropic gelation technique. rupa03arvapalli@gmail.comResearch522015Microencapsulation,Ionotropic gelation,Microspheres,Sodium alginate,Sodium CMC,Pectin, pH dependentSwarupa A,Revathi,Swaroopa,Pandu Rangam,Pallavi,J.V.C SharmaJoginpally B.R. Pharmacy College, Yenkapally (V), Moinabad (M), Hyderabad, Telangana, India,Joginpally B.R. Pharmacy College, Yenkapally (V), Moinabad (M), Hyderabad, Telangana, India,Joginpally B.R. Pharmacy College, Yenkapally (V), Moinabad (M), Hyderabad, Telangana, India,Joginpally B.R. Pharmacy College, Yenkapally (V), Moinabad (M), Hyderabad, Telangana, India,Joginpally B.R. Pharmacy College, Yenkapally (V), Moinabad (M), Hyderabad, Telangana, India,Joginpally B.R. Pharmacy College, Yenkapally (V), Moinabad (M), Hyderabad, Telangana, India