Materials properties of pharmaceutical formulations for thin-film-tablet continuous manufacturing

Abstract

The development of manufacturing tablets in a continuous way has been possible greatly to the fabrication of polymer based thin-films. It is estimated that the pharmaceutical industry loses as much as a 25% on revenues based on the currently employed batch manufacturing method. Here we studied a continuous way of manufacturing tablets based on API/based polymer formulations that are cast and subsequently rolled into a tablet. Selections of two active pharmaceutical ingredients (SPP-100 and Acetaminophen) were studied into how well it forms mechanical robust, chemical and physical compatible HPMC polymer based films. As well, HPMC polymer based films with no drug loading were compared to measure out the dispersion of the drug on the film. Physiochemical studies were performed by DSC, XRD, FT-IR, and SEM. Moisture content was measured out by Karl Fischer Titration and mechanical properties such as tensile strength were measured for all API/HPMC and placebo films. It was found that the mechanical and physiochemical properties of SPP-100/HPMC films were regarded as the most promising thin film tablet candidate and it is further being tested for other mechanical properties such as bonding, friction, and compression.