Aim　In this study , compound metformin glipizide bilayer extended release tablets were formulated with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)by wet granulation technique in order to tackle the problems associated with the multidrug therapy of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus .Methods   High-dose metformin is difficult to formulate into a tablet dosage form due to its poor compressibility and compactibility .In this study , the way to overcome the difficulty was to utilize stearic alcohol to prepare the tablet formulation .The influences of viscosity , amount of HPMC , and weight of fillers were investigated.The optimal formulation had acceptable physicochemical properties and released metformin and glipizide over 10 h .Results 　The data of metformin obtained from in vitro release fittedHiguchi kinetics best , while the release of glipizide in vitro was found to follow zero kinetics. Conclusion  Compound metformin glipizide bilayer extended release tablets have been successfully developed .