Critical gases for critical issues: CO2 technologies for oral drug delivery.

In recent years, CO2-based technologies have gained considerable interest in the pharmaceutical industry for their potential applications in drug formulation and drug delivery. The exploitation of peculiar properties of gases under supercritical conditions has been studied in the last 20 years with mixed results. Promising drug-delivery technologies, based on supercritical CO2, have mostly failed when facing challenges of industrial scaleability and economical viability.

A novel dense CO(2) supercritical fluid technology for the development of microparticulate delivery systems containing ketoprofen.

VarioSol® is an innovative, solvent-free technology able to produce microparticles exploiting near-critical CO(2) properties as spraying and cooling agent. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the feasibility to produce in a single processing step by VarioSol® technology, oral ketoprofen-loaded microparticles with gastro-protective properties. The obtained products were powders composed of regular in shape and small in diameter microparticles, characterized by high drug content (40%) and good flow properties.