Impact of the digital revolution on the future of pharmaceutical formulation science.

The ongoing digital revolution is no longer limited to the application of apps on the smart phone for daily needs but starts to affect also our professional life in formulation science. The software platform F-CAD (Formulation-Computer Aided Design) of CINCAP can be used to develop and test in silico capsule and tablet formulations. Such an approach allows the pharmaceutical industry to adopt the workflow of the automotive and aircraft industry.

An attempt to calculate in silico disintegration time of tablets containing mefenamic acid, a low water-soluble drug.

Based on a Quality by Design (QbD) approach, it is important to follow International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidance Q8 (R2) recommendations to explore the design space. The application of an experimental design is, however, not sufficient because of the fact that it is necessary to take into account the effects of percolation theory. For this purpose, an adequate software needs to be applied, capable of detecting percolation thresholds as a function of the distribution of the functional powder particles.

Investigation of compressibility and compactibility parameters of roller compacted Theophylline and its binary mixtures.

Roller compaction is a dry granulation method which results in tablets with inferior tensile strength comparing to direct compaction. The effect of roller compaction on compressibility and compactibility of tablets prepared from Theophylline anhydrate powder, Theophylline anhydrate fine powder and Theophylline monohydrate was investigated by measuring tensile strength of tablets as well as calculating compressibility and compactibility parameters by Leuenberger equation. The tablets under the same conditions were prepared by direct compaction and roller compaction.

Development of push-pull osmotic tablets using chitosan-poly(acrylic acid) interpolymer complex as an osmopolymer.

The objectives of this study were to prepare push-pull osmotic tablets (PPOT) of felodipine using an interpolymer complex of chitosan (CS) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as an osmopolymer, and to study the mechanisms of drug release from these tablets. The interpolymer complexes were prepared with different weight ratios of CS to PAA. Preparation of PPOT involved the fabrication of bilayered tablets with the drug layer, containing felodipine, polyethylene oxide, and the polymeric expansion layer, containing the CS-PAA complex.