Search

The purpose of this work was to investigate and evaluate the powder compressibility of binary mixtures containing a well-compressible compound (microcrystalline cellulose) and a brittle active drug (paracetamol and mefenamic acid) and its progression after a drug load increase. Drug concentration range was 0%-100% (m/m) with 10% intervals. The powder formulations were compacted to several relative densities with the Zwick material tester. The compaction force and tensile strength were fitted to several mathematical models that give representative factors for the powder compressibility. The factors k and C (Heckel and modified Heckel equation) showed mostly a nonlinear correlation with increasing drug load. The biggest drop in both factors occurred at far regions and drug load ranges. This outcome is crucial because in binary mixtures the drug load regions with higher changeover of plotted factors could be a hint for an existing percolation threshold. The susceptibility value (Leuenberger equation) showed varying values for each formulation without the expected trend of decrease for higher drug loads. The outcomes of this study showed the main challenges for good formulation design. Thus, we conclude that such mathematical plots are mandatory for a scientific evaluation and prediction of the powder compaction process.

Quantitative applications for pharmaceutical solid dosage forms using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy are central to process analytical technology (PAT) manufacturing designs. A series of studies were conducted to evaluate the use of NIR transmission mode under various pharmaceutical settings. The spectral variability in relation to tablet physical parameters were investigated using placebo tablets with different thickness and porosity steps and both variables showed an exponential relationship with the detected transmittance signal drop. The drug content of 2.5% m/m folic acid tablets produced under extremely different compaction conditions was predicted and found to agree with UV assay results after inclusion of extreme physical outliers to the training sets. NIR transmission was also shown to traverse a wide section of the tablet by comparing relative blocking intensities from different regions of the tablet surface and >90% of the signal was detected through a central area of 7 mm diameters of the tablet surface. NIR Quantification of both film thickness and active ingredient for film-coated tablets are examined in part II of this study.

The purpose of this study was to propose a method of determining the exact value of disintegrant ratio in a binary drug‐disintegrant compacted mixture for a minimum disintegration time in the case of spherical particles. Disintegration is a limiting factor in dissolution process of compact for low water soluble active ingredients. As disintegration time is shortest at a certain ratio of disintegrant, a calculation of this value is important for solid dosage from design to enhance disintegration and dissolution process. According to percolation theory, a minimum disintegration time corresponds to the formation of a continuous water‐conducting cluster through the entire tablet. The critical volumetric ratio at which the cluster is formed is named percolation threshold and has the value of 0.16 for random close packed (RCP) sphere systems. RCP systems where chosen as the best model for compacts consisting of spherical particles. Two cases for water diffusion through the tablet were identified, according to geometrical considerations between disintegrant and drug particles. These cases determine if disintegrant particles can have a contact between each other within the compact and thus if porosity and disintegrant volume are included in the continuous cluster. An equation for both cases is presented in the form of piecewise function to determine the minimal disintegrant volumetric ratio for a binary drug/disintegrant compact in order to achieve a minimum disintegration time. Disintegration tests were performed with tablets at different ratios of modified corn starch mixed with caffeine or paracetamol powders. Estimated and experimental optimal ratio were compared showing coefficient R2 = 0.96. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 97:529–541, 2008

Near-infrared spectroscopy offers tremendous advantages for pharmaceutical manufacturing as a fast and nondestructive method of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Content uniformity (end-product analytics) and process analytics are two important applications of the method. Diffuse reflection (DR) information depth (vertical sampling span) assessment is of equal importance in content prediction applications and to understand the effect of inhomogeneities in the sample. Three experiments were conducted: (a) 0.5 to 10.0 mm incremental thickness MCC tablets with constant porosity, (b) MCC/phenylbutazone (PBZ) double-layered (DL) tablets (PBZ layer 0%-100% in 0.5 mm steps), and (c) Comparison of placebo and 30% caffeine tablet cores with incremental film coating (film thickness of 0-0.35 mm). Incremental thickness and cluster analysis of DL tablets showed that DR information depth was0.5 mm, whereas the data fitting from incremental coating showed that signal drop reached 50% at 0.05 to 0.07 mm, depending on the wavenumber and 90% signal drop (10% information content) can be seen between 0.20 and 0.25 mm without extrapolation. These results mean that DR mode for pharmaceutical tablets obtains spectral information from the very surface, and radiation is barely reflected back from beyond thin-film coatings, making it less useful than diffuse transmission mode for core content analysis, especially for thick-coated, multilayer, multicore, or highly inhomogeneous tablets.