Investigation of surfactants suitable for stabilizing of latanoprost.

The content of latanoprost, a therapeutic drug for glaucoma, is likely to decrease in solution. In a previous study, we confirmed that this was associated with latanoprost adsorption to the container and hydrolysis of latanoprost, and established a formulation of latanoprost eye drop solution that can be stored at room temperature. In addition, we clarified that a surfactant added to the formulation stabilized latanoprost by forming complex micelle. In this study, we investigated the influence of structure of surfactants in the stabilization of latanoprost. Non-ionic surfactants involving the polyoxyethylene chain (additive mol number: 20 or more) and the straight-chain alkyl group, with an HLB of 15.0 or more, markedly inhibited a decrease in the latanoprost content and its degradation. These surfactants are soluble in the formulation of eye drop solution, leading to micelle formation even at a low concentration, and they are not influenced by the temperature. Therefore, they may exhibit marked stabilization effects. In addition, there was no influence on the stability of latanoprost when adding benzalkonium chloride, as a preservative, to a formulation involving these surfactants.

Preparation of rapidly disintegrating tablets containing itraconazole solid dispersions.

The disintegratability of tablets prepared from two types of solid dispersions containing the water-soluble polymer TC-5 and the enteric polymer HP-55 as an excipient were compared. The disintegratability was better in the tablets of solid dispersions containing non-water-soluble HP-55 than those containing TC-5. In consideration of the dissolubility of solid dispersions containing HP-55, the mean diameter of the solid dispersion (coating powder) must be controlled to 120 microm or less, but as this markedly increases the adhesion/aggregation tendency of the particles (angle of repose: 47 degrees ), control of the adhesion/aggregation tendency emerged as another problem. Therefore, surface-modification was performed in a high-speed agitating granulator using 0.1% light anhydrous silicic acid as a surface modifier, and marked improvement in the flowability was observed. This made continuous tableting using a rotary tablet machine possible even with the poorly flowable solid dispersions. Also, in tableting of the solid dispersions, no recrystallization of amorphous itraconazole by the tableting pressure was observed, and the tablets maintained satisfactory dissolubility. Moreover, it was possible to obtain the rapidly disintegrating tablets with very satisfactory properties, i.e., a tablet hardness of 30 N or higher and a disintegration time of 30 s or less, by the addition of croscarmellose as a disintegrant at 2% to the surface-modified solid dispersion and selection of the tableting pressure at 4.5 kN.