Hot-Melt Extrusion: a Roadmap for Product Development.

Hot-melt extrusion has found extensive application as a feasible pharmaceutical technological option over recent years. HME applications include solubility enhancement, taste masking, and sustained drug release. As bioavailability enhancement is a hot topic of today's science, one of the main applications of HME is centered on amorphous solid dispersions. This review describes the most significant aspects of HME technology and its use to prepare solid dispersions as a drug formulation strategy to enhance the solubility of poorly soluble drugs. It also addresses molecular and thermodynamic features critical for the physicochemical properties of these systems, mainly in what concerns miscibility and physical stability. Moreover, the importance of applying the Quality by Design philosophy in drug development is also discussed, as well as process analytical technologies in pharmaceutical HME monitoring, under the current standards of product development and regulatory guidance. Graphical Abstract.

Hot-melt extrusion in the pharmaceutical industry: toward filing a new drug application.

The pharmaceutical development of amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) by hot-melt extrusion (HME) is briefly reviewed. A systematic step-by-step approach is presented, where thermodynamics, polymer screening, multivariate statistics and process optimization are combined, to increase the success of HME-based drug product development. The quality by design (QbD) concept is introduced and applied to HME. Steps and tools for its effective implementation are provided, including risk assessment highlighting crucial points. The technical and scientific specificities of HME-based ASDs are discussed in light of the current paradigm of drug development and in-line with regulatory guidelines from the ICH regions. Case studies of recently approved HME products are presented.