Abstract: The aim of the present study was to investigate the release of ibuprofen (IB) from matrix tablets using a combination of water insoluble waxy materials with hydrophilic polymers. The waxy materials were added as additives to the hydrophilic polymer, hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC). Bees wax (BW), cetyl alcohol (CA) and stearic acid (SA) used as waxy materials that were added in increasing amount (up to 30% of total weight of tablet) to the HPMC based sustained release (SR) matrix tablets. The results showed that the matrix tablets using all the additives released the drug by zero order mechanism. Addition of waxy materials into the matrix significantly decreased the rate of drug release due to the reduction in penetration of the dissolution fluid. From the release profiles excellent correlation was found between the concentration of waxy materials and ibuprofen release rate.