(551d) Particle Engineering for Pharmaceutical Applications | AIChE

(551d) Particle Engineering for Pharmaceutical Applications

Authors 

Dave, R. - Presenter, New Jersey Institue of Technology

Research activities at NJIT as part of a multi-university, National Science Foundation funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) with specific applications to pharmaceutical industry are presented. NJIT team focuses on particle engineering that exploits interactions at the nano and micro scales to improve pharmaceutical products. The presentation will give an overview of the research progress in two important areas: (1) improved bioavailability of poorly water soluble drugs, including a versatile nano-micro particle embedded strip-film based platform, and (2) overcoming the difficulties in processing pharmaceutical materials due to their high cohesion. Pharmaceutical solid dosage platforms for immediate release from crystalline nano and micro drug particles are discussed with a main objective of enhancing the dissolution rate of poorly water-soluble drugs. A potentially continuous processing platform where drug particles are well-dispersed within edible polymer strip-films, is introduced. Other approach for bioavailability enhancement consists of spray coating via fluid-bed drying of nano/micro drug suspensions to produce high drug loaded free-flowing powders for incorporation in to tablets or capsules. Next, dry coating based surface modification as a predictive, model-based approach is presented to mitigate problems posed by fine powders due to high cohesion, leading to improvements in flow, fluidization, dispersion, and bulk density. A bulk property based 2-D phase-map is proposed to help make manufacturing decisions regarding the formulation strategy for solid pharmaceutical dosages, presenting a promising potential for commercial applications and costs reduction.