Going green: Development of a sustainable lipid-based enteric coating formulation for low-dose aspirin multiparticulate systems.

There is a rising awareness of pharmaceutical industry of both patient-centric and sustainable product development. Manufacturing of multiparticulate systems (MPS) with functional coating via solvent-free hot melt coating (HMC) can fulfill both requirements. An innovative lipid-based formulation was developed with the composition of palmitic acid and Grindsted® citrem BC-FS (BC-FS) for enteric coating of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). The ASA crystals were directly hot melt coated to produce user-friendly low-dose ASA MPS for thromboembolism prophylaxis. Prior to HMC, rational boundaries for the process temperature were defined based on the melting and crystallization behavior of coating blend. Stability of coating in terms of resistance to heat stress and solidstate stability were screened via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction. Exposure of coating blend to 100 °C for two hours did not cause any chemical degradation. Crystal growth of palmitic acid and polymorphic transformation in BC-FS were observed after storage under accelerated conditions, however did not significantly affect the ASA release from coating. The developed formulation is a unique solvent-free, lipid-based enteric composition and paves the way for sustainable green pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Impact of polysorbate 65 on tripalmitin crystal growth and release stability of hot melt coated multiparticulate systems.

Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) multiparticulate systems (MPS) were hot melt coated with the binary mixture of tripalmitin (PPP) and polysorbate 65 (PS 65) to gain an immediate release profile. Once, HCT MPS were produced with a constant ratio of PPP/PS 65 (90:10) at three different coating amounts (15, 25, and 60%w/w) and once the PPP/PS 65 ratio was varied on 98:2 and 80:20, by keeping the coating amount at 60%w/w. PS 65 induced the polymorphic transformation of PPP from the α-form to its most stable ß-form right after the hot melt coating (HMC). A release alteration of HCT, either accelerated or decelerated, occurred after the storage under accelerated conditions. The effect of the API core on the lipid lamellar configuration, the thermal behavior of lipid coating, and the effect of PS 65 concentration on the crystal growth of PPP were investigated via X-ray diffraction and DSC. While a low amount of PS 65 was sufficient to promote crystal growth of PPP and resulted in a decelerated release of HCT from the coating, a higher PS 65 concentration favored phase separation of PPP and PS 65 and led to an accelerated release. The increase in PS 65 reinforced the molecular interaction with the lipophilic HCT, reflected in less crystal growth and decelerated release. The knowledge presented in this study supports understanding the instability of binary emulsifier-lipid coating systems, paving the way for developing robust HMC formulations.

Pharmacovigilance in ophthalmology in Switzerland: an analysis of the most frequently reported ocular adverse drug reactions within the last 25 years.

AIMS OF THE STUDY: Although systemic drugs can exert local effects on the eye, ophthalmology is a medical specialty with perhaps the fewest assessed adverse drug reactions (ADRs), representing a particular challenge in pharmacovigilance. Our aim was to quantify ADRs in ophthalmology in Switzerland, with a focus on angiogenesis inhibitors. METHODS: Individual case safety reports (ICSRs) on suspected ADRs reported in Switzerland from January 1991 to June 2016 were extracted from the WHO Global ICSR database, VigiBase™. ICSRs were analysed in relation to treatment duration, patient age, route of administration, patient sex and reported symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 80,515 ICSRs were reported in Switzerland during the reference period. Reactions linked to eye disorders accounted for 2793 (3.5%) cases. The main Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical / Defined Daily Dose drug classes associated with eye disorders were drugs acting on the nervous system (27.7%) followed by drugs “acting on sensory organs” (20.2%) and antineoplastic agents (18.0%). Most cases involved adult patients (70.6%). Patients over 60 years accounted for 815 (29.2%) ICSRs, and reactions in children were significantly less frequent (8.2%). Older patients were exposed to a higher number of drugs, and the majority of serious reactions involved children and older patients. A significant positive correlation between polypharmacy and seriousness of reported reactions was observed. The reported drugs were categorised as “suspected” in 51.1%, “concomitant” in 43.3% and “interacting” in 2.6% of cases. “Visual impairment” was the most commonly reported adverse reaction, experienced by 635 (22.7%) of patients (7.2% of all reported eye-related symptoms). The majority of reactions were transient, as 4173 (47.1%) completely resolved. Severe reactions included fatal outcome in 18 patients (0.6%) and blindness in 78 patients (2.6%). Since 2000, the intravitreous vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors bevacizumab, aflibercept and ranibizumab accounted for 99 ICSRs. Retinal haemorrhage (reporting odds ratio [ROR] 10.36, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 2.65–40.50; p <0.001), blindness (ROR 3.73, 95% CI 1.08–12.96; p = 0.04) and uveitis (ROR 6.91, 95% CI 1.64–29.13; p = 0.01) were significantly more frequently reported for aflibercept than for bevacizumab and ranibizumab. CONCLUSIONS: ADRs that affect the eye represented 3.5% of all pharmacovigilance reports during the reporting period. Whereas retinal haemorrhage and uveitis are known adverse reactions to angiogenesis inhibitors, the reported cases of blindness and death should heighten awareness of potential safety issues associated with VEGF inhibitors for the treatment of proliferative eye disorders.