Pharmaceutical Applications of Hot-Melt Extrusion: Part I
TL;DR: The pharmaceutical applications of hot-melt extrusion, including equipment, principles of operation, and process technology, are reviewed and the physicochemical properties of the resultant dosage forms are described.
Abstract: Interest in hot-melt extrusion techniques for pharmaceutical applications is growing rapidly with well over 100 papers published in the pharmaceutical scientific literature in the last 12 years. Hot-melt extrusion (HME) has been a widely applied technique in the plastics industry and has been demonstrated recently to be a viable method to prepare several types of dosage forms and drug delivery systems. Hot-melt extruded dosage forms are complex mixtures of active medicaments, functional excipients, and processing aids. HME also offers several advantages over traditional pharmaceutical processing techniques including the absence of solvents, few processing steps, continuous operation, and the possibility of the formation of solid dispersions and improved bioavailability. This article, Part I, reviews the pharmaceutical applications of hot-melt extrusion, including equipment, principles of operation, and process technology. The raw materials processed using this technique are also detailed and the physicochemical properties of the resultant dosage forms are described. Part II of this review will focus on various applications of HME in drug delivery such as granules, pellets, immediate and modified release tablets, transmucosal and transdermal systems, and implants.
Citations
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TL;DR: The Gordon-Taylor equation, as it is not predictive of the presence of intermolecular bonds such as hydrogen bonding in an amorphous dispersion, may underestimate the likely physical stability of solid dispersions which are produced and stabilised by these interactions.
83 citations
TL;DR: HME extrusion has been shown to molecularly disperse poorly soluble drugs in a polymer carrier, increasing dissolution rates and bioavailability and has been identified as an important and significant process to further enhance drug solubility and solid-dispersion production.
Abstract: The use of hot-melt extrusion (HME) within the pharmaceutical industry is steadily increasing, due to its proven ability to efficiently manufacture novel products. The process has been utilized readily in the plastics industry for over a century and has been used to manufacture medical devices for several decades. The development of novel drugs with poor solubility and bioavailability brought the application of HME into the realm of drug-delivery systems. This has specifically been shown in the development of drug-delivery systems of both solid dosage forms and transdermal patches. HME involves the application of heat, pressure and agitation through an extrusion channel to mix materials together, and subsequently forcing them out through a die. Twin-screw extruders are most popular in solid dosage form development as it imparts both dispersive and distributive mixing. It blends materials while also imparting high shear to break-up particles and disperse them. HME extrusion has been shown to molecularly disperse poorly soluble drugs in a polymer carrier, increasing dissolution rates and bioavailability. The most common difficulty encountered in producing such dispersions is stabilization of amorphous drugs, which prevents them from recrystallization during storage. Pharmaceutical industrial suppliers, of both materials and equipment, have increased their development of equipment and chemicals for specific use with HME. Clearly, HME has been identified as an important and significant process to further enhance drug solubility and solid-dispersion production.
81 citations
TL;DR: Findings suggested that, at least in the particular case of OLZ, the absence of crystalline material may not be critical to the dissolution performance, particularly the dissolution behavior of the polymers themselves.
81 citations
TL;DR: This manuscript reviews the most important physicochemical factors that should be investigated while designing and optimizing a hot melt extrusion process and by extension, during the different pre-formulation, formulation and process, and post- formulation phases.
Abstract: Hot-melt extrusion (HME) is a well-accepted and extensively studied method for preparing numerous types of drug delivery systems and dosage forms. It offers several advantages: no solvents are required, it is easy to scale up and employ on the industrial level, and, in particular, it offers the possibility of improving drug bioavailability. HME involves the mixing of a drug with one or more excipients, in general polymers and even plasticizers, which can melt, often forming a solid dispersion of the drug in the polymer. The molten mass is extruded and cooled, giving rise to a solid material with designed properties. This process, which can be realized using different kinds of special equipment, may involve modifications in the drug physicochemical properties, such as chemical, thermal and mechanical characteristics thus affecting the drug physicochemical stability and bioavailability. During process optimization, the evaluation of the drug solid state and stability is thus of paramount importance to guarantee stable drug properties for the duration of the drug product shelf life. This manuscript reviews the most important physicochemical factors that should be investigated while designing and optimizing a hot melt extrusion process, and by extension, during the different pre-formulation, formulation and process, and post-formulation phases. It offers a comprehensive evaluation of the chemical and thermal stability of extrudates, the solid physical state of extrudates, possible drug-polymer interactions, the miscibility/solubility of the drug-polymer system, the rheological properties of extrudates, the physicomechanical properties of films produced by hot melt extrusion, and drug particle dissolution from extrudates. It draws upon the last ten years of research, extending inquiry as broadly as possible.
81 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of polymers were recorded to determine the physical nature of the polymers and the results will help the selection of polyvinylpyrrolidone-based polymers for hot melt extrusion.
Abstract: Polymers are essential components of melt extruded products. The objective of the paper was to generate physicochemical data on polyvinylpyrrolidone-based polymers and copolymers that are relevant to hot melt extrusion (HME). It also highlights the importance of viscoelastic analysis to predict HME processing conditions. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of polymers were recorded to determine the physical nature of polymers. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were conducted to determine their glass transition temperature (T g ) and weight loss due to degradation (T d ) respectively. Rheological studies were conducted to quantitate storage modulus (G´), loss modulus (G˝), tan δ and complex viscosity (η) of the polymers at various temperatures. Powder XRD analyses showed that all polymers were amorphous in nature, with distinct single or dual halos. DSC ascertained that the amorphous polymers had single T g values. The conversion of the polymers from solid to liquid forms with an increase in temperature was established by the tan δ = 1 values. The overall complex viscosity for all polymers decreased with an increase in temperature. The complex viscosity of one of the polymers, Soluplus ® , was correlated with torque analysis by HME to establish an extrudable temperature range. The results will help the selection of polyvinylpyrrolidone-based polymers for HME.
81 citations
References
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1,883 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1995
TL;DR: The authors provided the basic building blocks of polymer science and engineering by coverage of fundamental polymer chemistry and materials topics given in Chapters 1 through 7 and provided information on the exciting new materialsnow available and the emerging areas of technological growth that could motivate a new generation of scientists and engineers.
Abstract: From the Book:
PREFACE: At least dozens of good introductory textbooks on polymer science and engineering are now available. Why then has yet another book been written?
The decision was based on my belief that none of the available texts fully addresses the needs of students in chemical engineering. It is not that chemical engineers are a rare breed, but rather that they have special training in areas of thermodynamics and transport phenomena that is seldom challenged by texts designed primarily for students of chemistry or materials science. This has been a frustration of mine and of many of my students for the past 15 years during which I have taught an introductory course, Polymer Technology, to some 350 chemical engineering seniors. In response to this perceived need, I had written nine review articles that appeared in the SPE publication Plastics Engineering from 1982 to 1984. These served as hard copy for my students to supplement their classroom notes but fell short of a complete solution.
In writing this text, it was my objective to first provide the basic building blocks of polymer science and engineering by coverage of fundamental polymer chemistry and materials topics given in Chapters 1 through 7.
As a supplement to the traditional coverage of polymer thermodynamics, extensive discussion of phase equilibria, equation-of- state theories, and UNIFAC has been included in Chapter 3. Coverage of rheology, including the use of constitutive equations and the modeling of simple flow geometries, and the fundamentals of polymer processing operations are given in Chapter 11.
Finally, I wanted to provide information on the exciting new materialsnowavailable and the emerging areas of technological growth that could motivate a new generation of scientists and engineers. For this reason, engineering and specialty polymers are surveyed in Chapter 10 and important new applications for polymers in separations (membrane separations), electronics (conducting polymers), biotechnology (controlled drug release), and other specialized areas of engineering are given in Chapter 12. In all, this has been an ambitious undertaking and I hope that I have succeeded in at least some of these goals.
Although the intended audience for this text is advanced undergraduates and graduate students in chemical engineering, the coverage of polymer science fundamentals (Chapters 1 through 7) should be suitable for a semester course in a materials science or chemistry curriculum.
Chapters 8 through 10 intended as survey chapters of the principal categories of polymers commodity thermoplastics and fibers, network polymers (elastomers and thermosets), and engineering and specialty polymers may be included to supplement and reinforce the material presented in the chapters on fundamentals and should serve as a useful reference source for the practicing scientist or engineer in the plastics industry.
981 citations
TL;DR: A comparison of the carbonyl stretching region of γ indomethacin, known to form carboxylic acid dimers, with that of amorphous indometHacin indicated that the amorphously phase exists predominantly as dimers.
Abstract: Purpose. To study the molecular structure of indomethacin-PVP amorphous solid dispersions and identify any specific interactions between the components using vibrational spectroscopy.
904 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: In this article, the elastic properties of polymeric solids and their properties of rubber are discussed. But they focus on the structure of the molecule rather than the properties of the solids.
Abstract: Introduction. 1: Structure of the molecule. 2: Structure of polymeric solids. 3: The elastic properties of rubber. 4: Viscoelasticity. 5: Yield and fracture. 6: Reinforced polymers. 7: Forming. 8: Design. Further reading, Answers, Index
790 citations
TL;DR: Improved bioavailability was achieved again demonstrating the value of the technology as a drug delivery tool, with particular advantages over solvent processes like co-precipitation.
790 citations