Slow release pharmaceutical compositions

Claim 1

A slow release pharmaceutical tablet comprising a therapeutically sufficient quantity of a pharmacologically active compound, a slow release pharmaceutical composition comprising two to four parts by weight of a higher aliphatic alcohol selected from the group consisting of aliphatic alcohols with the formula ROH, wherein R is an alkyl group having from 8 to 18 carbon atoms in chain length, ceto-stearyl alcohol and mixtures of these, and one part by weight of a hydrated hydroxy alkyl cellulose compound selected from the group consisting of hydroxy methyl cellulose, hydroxy ethyl cellulose, hydroxy propyl cellulose and mixture of these, said composition being formed by: a. melting and granulating said higher aliphatic alcohol, b. hydrating said hydroxy alkyl cellulose with two to four volumes of water for each part by weight of cellulose compound and granulating said hydrated cellulose compound, c. blending the active ingredient with either the granulated melt of step (a) or with the granulated hydrated alkyl cellulose of step (b) or with mixtures thereof, d. drying the blend of granules to obtain the formed dried slow release pharmaceutical granules, and e. compressing the granules admixed with a sufficient quantity of a pharmaceutically acceptable tablet diluent into compressed tablets wherein the proportion of said slow release composition being present is in the amount of from 20 percent to 30 percent by weight of the total weight of the tablet.