Analytical approach for lubricant characterization of excipients using the surface replication method.

Lubricants are indispensable pharmaceutical ingredients for preventing tableting failure due to powder adhesion to the die wall. The impact of lubricants was evaluated with use of the Binding Identification for Net Detriment (BIND) surface replication method. Raloxifene hydrochloride (RH) was selected as a model chemical with high adhesion, and four commercially available tablet lubricants - stearic acid, sodium stearyl fumarate, calcium stearate, and magnesium stearate - were used for RH formulation. BIND was applied to the die wall to analyze the effect of various lubricants on binding properties. The preparations without lubricants showed poor tableting properties as evidenced by as much as 61.7% powder adhesion density. Lubricants significantly altered the binding properties, yielding powder adhesion densities of 40.2% (stearic acid), 29.7% (stearyl sodium fumarate), 23.0% (calcium stearate), and 13.6% (magnesium stearate). Evaluation of three grades of magnesium stearate resulted in a two-fold difference between the highest and the lowest powder adhesion density. Throughout the work, conventional methods including visual observations and measurement of ejection force were unable to provide qualitative/quantitative evaluations. The ejection process depends on both axial force and radial force; however, the ejection force show only the axial force. At the same time, visual observation could release significant qualitative results. However, BIND allowed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the binding properties. BIND is a promising assessment method for analyzing the impacts of various lubricants on binding properties and for optimizing RH formulations.

BIND, a novel analytical approach for monitoring powder adhesion at the die wall with use of the surface replication method.

Tableting failure due to binding is often caused by powder adhesion to the die wall. The present study was undertaken to develop a novel approach for analyzing the binding characteristics of various formulations and manufacturing methods, named "Binding Identification for Net Detriment" (BIND). Binding characteristics with raloxifene hydrochloride as a model preparation were evaluated by visual observation, ejection force and BIND. The surface replication method was initially employed to monitor powder adhesion to the die wall. Microscopic images with replicates were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. For the validation, BIND and measurement of the friction between a tablet and the die wall were performed. The qualitative data on BIND agreed with visual observations; however, there were some data discrepancies between the ejection force and visual observations. For the formulation without lubricant, BIND showed a 30.2% powder adhesion rate, while the formulation containing 1% lubricant exhibited a powder adhesion rate of 4.1%. Thus, BIND demonstrated that the use of the wet tableting method reduced powder adhesion compared with the direct tableting method. BIND allowed qualitative and quantitative analysis of powder adhesion for both powder compression and tablet ejection. BIND is a promising tool for analyzing powder adhesion to the die wall.

Anti-plasticizing effect of amorphous indomethacin induced by specific intermolecular interactions with PVA copolymer.

The mechanism of how poly(vinyl alcohol-co-acrylic acid-co-methyl methacrylate) (PVA copolymer) stabilizes an amorphous drug was investigated. Solid dispersions of PVA copolymer, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate) (PVPVA) with indomethacin (IMC) were prepared. The glass transition temperature (Tg)-proportion profiles were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). General Tg profiles decreasing with the IMC ratio were observed for IMC-PVP and IMC-PVPVA samples. An interesting antiplasticizing effect of IMC on PVA copolymer was observed; Tg increased up to 20% IMC ratio. Further addition of IMC caused moderate reduction with positive deviation from theoretical values. Specific hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions between IMC and PVA copolymer were revealed by infrared spectra. The indole amide of IMC played an important role in hydrogen bonding with PVA copolymer, but not with PVP and PVPVA. X-ray diffraction findings and the endotherm on DSC profiles suggested that PVA copolymer could form a semicrystalline structure and a possibility of correlation of the crystallographic nature with its low hygroscopicity was suggested. PVA copolymer was able to prevent crystallization of amorphous IMC through both low hygroscopicity and the formation of a specific intermolecular interaction compared with that with PVP and PVPVA.

Scale-up studies on high shear wet granulation process from mini-scale to commercial scale.

A newly developed mini-scale high shear granulator was used for scale-up study of wet granulation process from 0.2 to 200 L scales. Under various operation conditions and granulation bowl sizes, powder mixture composed of anhydrous caffeine, D-mannitol, dibasic calcium phosphate, pregelatinized starch and corn starch was granulated by adding water. The granules were tabletted, and disintegration time and hardness of the tablets were evaluated to seek correlations of granulation conditions and tablet properties. As the granulation proceeded, disintegration time was prolonged and hardness decreased. When granulation processes were operated under the condition that agitator tip speed was the same, similar relationship between granulation time and tablet properties, such as disintegration time and hardness, between 0.2 L and 11 L scales were observed. Likewise, between 11 L and 200 L scales similar relationship was observed when operated under the condition that the force to the granulation mass was the same. From the above results, the mini-scale high shear granulator should be useful tool to predict operation conditions of large-scale granulation from its mini-scale operation conditions, where similar tablet properties should be obtained.