Community pharmacists' knowledge of COPD, and practices and perceptions of medication counseling of COPD patients.

Background And Purpose: COPD is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although medication counseling interventions by pharmacists have been found to support the management of COPD, little is known about pharmacists' knowledge concerning COPD and regular practices and perceptions concerning medication counseling of COPD patients. The purpose of this study was to research these topics among Finnish community pharmacists.

Excipient selection can significantly affect solid-state phase transformation in formulation during wet granulation.

Phase transformations in formulations can lead to instability in physicochemical, biopharmaceutical, and processing properties of products. The influences of formulation design on the optimal dosage forms should be specified. The aim here was to investigate whether excipients with different water sorption behavior affect hydrate formation of nitrofurantoin in wet masses.

Role of water in the physical stability of solid dosage formulations.

The interaction of moisture with pharmaceutical solids is highly crucial to an understanding of water-based processes, for example, manufacturing processes or prediction of solid dosage form stability and shelf life. Both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and excipients in the formulation have different moisture sorption properties that can result in unexpected processing-induced phase transitions and they can affect solid-state phase transitions in the final dosage forms. The character of excipient effects on the stability of formulation.