Abstract: AIM　To apply simultaneous optimization technique in pharmaceutical dosage form design. METHODS　By sieving the optimal formulation of salbutamol sulfate osmotic pump tablets, two simultaneous optimization techniques: response surface method (RSM) and artificial neural networks (RSM) were employed and their generalization ability was compared. RESULTS　The optimal formulations proposed by the two methods were alike, but the results estimated by ANN showed a smaller error. CONCLUSION　In the comprehensive experimental design, ANN and RSM have almost the same estimate ability. The ANN is useful in solving optimization problems and should be widely applied in formulation design.