Investigation of Surface Properties and Free Volumes of Chitosan-Based Buccal Mucoadhesive Drug Delivery Films Containing Ascorbic Acid.

Nowadays, the buccal administration of mucoadhesive films is very promising. Our aim was to prepare ascorbic acid-containing chitosan films to study the properties and structures important for applicability and optimize the composition. During the formulation of mucoadhesive films, chitosan as the polymer basis of the film was used. Ascorbic acid, which provided the acidic pH, was used in different concentrations (2-5%). The films were formulated by the solvent casting method. The properties of films important for applicability were investigated, such as physical parameters, mucoadhesive force, surface free energy, and breaking strength. The fine structure of the films was analyzed by atomic force microscopy, and the free volume was analyzed by PALS, which can be important for drug release kinetics and the location of the drug in the film. The applicability of the optimized composition was also tested with two different types of active ingredients. The structure of the films was also analyzed by XRPD and FTIR. Ascorbic acid can be used well in chitosan films, where it can function as a permeation enhancer when reacting to chitosan, it is biodegradable, and can be applied in 2% of our studies.

Anti-counterfeiting protection, personalized medicines - Development of 2D identification methods using laser technology.

Counterfeiting of the products for healing is as old as trading, and it is difficult to quantify the magnitude of the problem. It is known that substandard and/or falsified (SF) medicines are a growing global threat to health, and they cause serious social and economic damage. The EU has a strong legal framework for medicines, it is mandatory to meet the requirements of Directive 2011/62/EU. Serialisation prevents SF medicinal products from entering the legal distribution chain. The present study is an extension of the original idea and aims to develop a laser technology-based method to mark an individual traceable code on the surface of the tablet, which technology can also be used for marking personalized medicines. The method is based on the ablation of the upper layer of a double-layer, differently coloured coating. The 2D code should be formed without harming the functional layer, and anyone with a smartphone integrated with a camera should be able to authenticate these drugs with a suitable application. The present findings confirmed that KrF excimer laser and Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser are efficient and reliable for marking. These should be promising candidates for pharmaceutical companies that would like to have additional protection against drug counterfeiters.

Comparison of conventionally and naturally coloured coatings marked by laser technology for unique 2D coding of pharmaceuticals.

Substandard and/or falsified medicines are a growing global threat for health and they cause serious social and economic damage. In low- and middle-income countries the failure rate of these medical products is approximately 10.5%. 50% of medicines purchased over the Internet may be fake. According to Directive 2011/62/EU as regards the prevention of falsified medicines from entering into the legal supply chain, a unique identification should be put on each box of drugs in the EU from 9th February 2019. The current project is focusing on the development of a laser technology to mark an individual traceable code on the surface of the tablet. Usually, coatings contain titanium dioxide for sufficient coverage, which makes precision laser coding more difficult. New naturally coloured films do not include those excipients. In this research, we would like to compare the physical-chemical properties of conventionally and naturally coloured coatings after the laser marking procedure by using two types of lasers. This unique identification technology can be used for marking personalized medicine with the doses tailored for each patient, too. To sum up, the present findings may contribute to efficient and reliable laser marking solutions in the unique identification procedure. Based on our measurement results, it can be stated that excimer UV lasers are promising candidates as marking instruments for the polymer film in both conventionally and naturally coloured coatings.