Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common disease, which involves many individuals beyond the globe. The main pharmacological treatments for GERD include antacids, Surface agents and Alginates, Histamine receptor antagonists (H2RA), and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). Alginate-based raft-forming formulations have been used widely all over the world for at least four decades. The unique mechanism of action of these formulations is based on forming a buoyant raft in the presence of gastric acid. Mechanisms of action of alginate-based products consist of three simultaneous stages, Transforming sodium alginate to alginic acid in the acidic content of stomach, divalent ions of calcium, which are released from calcium carbonate, provide the strength of rafts and sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate react to acid and form carbon dioxide gases which transform gel to foam. In this study,we designed a new alginate-based formulations we and evaluate the efficacy of our optimized formulation to seven well-known alginate-based formulations, which are commonly used in the market under names of Gaviscon Liquid, Gastrocote, Algicon, Gaviscon Extra Strength, Mylanta Heartburn Relief, Peptac and Rennie Duo.

Efficacy of these formulations was obtained by determining their strength, weight, volume and acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) of their rafts in a simulated gastric fluid medium.

According to data obtained from our research, our optimized formulation, Gaviscon liquid and Peptac, which have 5g/100ml content of sodium alginate are suitable for raft strength based on the standard of the British Pharmacopoeia also gaviscon our optimized formulation liquid was superior in weight, volume and ANC compare to other types of formulations.

Alginate-based formulations make a physical barrier on top of gastric fluid and prevent the acidic content of stomach to injure mucosa of the esophagus. Because of this unique characteristic, Gaviscon is the market leader among all non-prescription products (antacids and H2-receptor antagonists) marketed for GERD symptoms relief.