Manufacturing, Solid and Semi-Solid Dosage Drugs

An industry leader since 1933, Catalent develops and manufactures over 80% of the world's Rx softgel products with 200+ products on the market in 80+ countries.

The collaboration with Pfizer aims to develop next-generation, continuous manufacturing for solid-dosage pharmaceuticals.

Foam granulation is much easier to control under mechanical dispersion conditions, which is where most industrial processes operate.

The Bosspak VTC 100 electronic tablet and capsule counter from Romaco?s is designed to fill pharmaceutical solids or food supplements into bottles at high speed.

Direct tablet compression is simpler than wet or dry granulation, but obtaining the right flow properties to ensure good compaction and uniform drug distribution can be a challenge. Porous silica gel, when used as a glidant, can address these issues.

Experts, including researchers at I Holland, Natoli, and Rutgers University’s Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Particulate Systems, are seeking a greater understanding of the fundamental causes of tablet sticking and are developing predictive models to more quickly find solutions to specific sticking problems.

Risk management guides decisions in facility design and operation for highly potent drugs.

Greater automation and the adoption of solid versus perforated pans are some recent advances.

Dynamic testing and advances in shear testing provide better insight into powder physical properties and external variables that affect powder behavior.

Crushing, fracturing, and bending tests quantify hardness.

Drug manufacturers today are increasingly challenged to find new, effective methods for the delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and many are discovering that orally disintegrating technologies can help.

Podcast interview with Nick Johnson, Strategic Marketing Director for Modified Release Technologies at Catalent Pharma Solutions

The trick to taste-masking in solid dosage forms is to never let the taste buds have a chance.

Industry is moving toward closed-loop control of continuous processing.

Equipment suppliers are helping the pharmaceutical industry move towards adoption of continuous tablet production.

Loss-in-weight feeders provide high accuracy for feeding powders.

An alternative chapter has been added to the European Pharmacopoeia for dosage uniformity.

New product reviews for February 2013.

Dr. Charles Kettler, director of Natoli Scientific, looks at the challenges that tablet scoring poses to tablet manufacturers.

Tim Freeman of Freeman Technology explains how new analytical technologies have influenced quality criteria and standards for the uniformity of dosage units, and why more accurate systems are leading to greater focus on tablet scoring.

When splitting unscored tablets, the main concerns relate to API dosage control and the potential modification of time-release characteristics. PTE speaks with tableting experts Thierry Menard, Lab Manager, And Bruno Villa, President, both at Medelpharm, about how manufacturers are approaching the challenges.

GlaxoSmithKline recently developed a novel technology for the formulation of modified-release tablets. The authors describe the route from development to commercialization.

Fluid-Bag Ltd provides comprehensive 900 and 1000 litre flexible IBC systems for liquid and semi-solid products, including filling and discharging equipment. The GMP compliant container system is designed to guarantee uniform liquid, maximise payload and minimise discharge residue (0.5% residue).

The physical form of an API is an important consideration in formulation development. Particle-engineering technologies, such as crystal design for controlling crystallisation and producing cocrystals, particle-size reduction and amorphous solid dispersions, help to optimise delivery of a drug.

The advantages and disadvantages of hot-melt extrusion in solid dispersion formulations.

The authors describe a solid form technology platform used to optimize salt selection, cocrystallization identification and modification, or the development of a free form.

Rob Blanchard and Clive Roberts discuss the issues surrounding tablet sticking.

In addition to the established coating systems (like the BFC and the BFC TriPan), Bohle developed a new coater to face the market needs, the Bohle-Tablet-Coater BTC.

New coating technologies achieve high uniformity and reduce waste through mixing system advances and pan and airflow configuration.