Hot-melt coating with lipid excipients.

Polymer coatings are widely used to provide drug protection, taste masking, coloration and modified drug release. Typically, coating polymers must be diluted or dispersed in solvents (water or organic) prior to coating and gliding agents are commonly added to prevent particle sticking throughout processing. Lipid excipients present an attractive alternative to standard polymer coatings as they only require melting before application directly onto the substrate.

Effects of film coating thickness and drug layer uniformity on in vitro drug release from sustained-release coated pellets: a case study using terahertz pulsed imaging.

Film coating thickness and terahertz electric field peak strength (TEFPS) were determined using terahertz pulsed imaging (TPI) and employed for the analysis of sustained-release coated pellets (theophylline layered sugar cores coated with Kollicoat SR:Kollicoat IR polymer blends). The effects of coating thickness, drug layer uniformity and optional curing were investigated using eight batches of pellets. Ten pellets from each batch were imaged with TPI to analyse the coating morphology (depicted in TEFPS) and thickness prior to release measurements.