The present work was aimed for the formulation design and characterization of hydrogel beads to obtain an effective stimuli-responsive release of the antihypertensive drug, Valsartan. Hydrogel beads were prepared using xanthan gum, soluplus and acrylamide as polymers, methylene bis acrylamide as crossinker and potassium per sulfate as reaction initiator. The beads were characterized by FTIR, DSC and SEM. The studies showed that there were no possible chemical interaction between the drug and the polymers and SEM revealed that the beads were of spherical in shape with good surface morphology. The beads showed a good entrapment efficiency of about 90% and the swelling rate was found to be more at higher PH. The percentage drug release was also higher as the PH increased and was observed to be reduced at higher concentrations of the crosslinking agent. The hydrogel beads followed zero order non-fickian diffusion mechanism. Thus the hydrogel bead system as an effective stimuliresponsive drug delivery system was developed which offered a solubilizing cross-linked network matrix for the poorly soluble drug, Valsartan providing the best controlled release of the drug over 24 hrs.
