Minitablets current use and future opportunities - An APV course on manufacturing, packaging, characterization and use of minitablets.

Recently, APV organized in collaboration with Fette Compacting GmbH a course on current use and future opportunities of minitablets. The course including a workshop was attended by 30 participants and focused on the manufacturing, packaging, characterization and medical use of minitablets. It took place at the Headquarter of Fette Compacting GmbH in Schwarzenbek. This article provides an overview on the topics presented and discussed during the course.

The Role of Titanium Dioxide (E171) and the Requirements for Replacement Materials in Oral Solid Dosage Forms: An IQ Consortium Working Group Review.

Titanium dioxide (in the form of E171) is a ubiquitous excipient in tablets and capsules for oral use. In the coating of a tablet or in the shell of a capsule the material disperses visible and UV light so that the contents are protected from the effects of light, and the patient or caregiver cannot see the contents within. It facilitates elegant methods of identification for oral solid dosage forms, thus aiding in the battle against counterfeit products. Titanium dioxide ensures homogeneity of appearance from batch to batch fostering patient confidence. The ability of commercial titanium dioxide to disperse light is a function of the natural properties of the anatase polymorph of titanium dioxide, and the manufacturing processes used to produce the material utilized in pharmaceuticals. In some jurisdictions E171 is being considered for removal from pharmaceutical products, as a consequence of it being delisted as an approved colorant for foods. At the time of writing, in the view of the authors, no system or material which could address both current and future toxicological concerns of Regulators and the functional needs of the pharmaceutical industry and patients has been identified. This takes into account the assessment of materials such as calcium carbonate, talc, isomalt, starch and calcium phosphates. In this paper an IQ Consortium team outlines the properties of titanium dioxide and criteria to which new replacement materials should be held.

High Acceptability of an Orally Dispersible Tablet Formulation by Children.

There is a high unmet medical need for child-appropriate oral dosage forms. The acceptability of a novel placebo orally dispersible tablet formulation (pODT) was therefore evaluated. Monolithic tablets contain an inorganic calcium carbonate/calcium phosphate carrier material as the main excipient. They were assessed in a cross-sectional acceptability study. The 40 child participants were between 2 to 5 years and 6 to 10 years old. One pODT with 5 mm diameter was administered to each participating child by placement on the tongue or into the buccal cavity. Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire together with the study personnel. The spontaneous reactions of the children were recorded. The ease of administration and children's acceptance of the tablet was rated by research staff on a 4-point acceptability scale and by parents on a 5-point Likert scale. The older subjects answered how they had liked the pODT by pointing to the appropriate face of a Facial Hedonic Scale. pODT had very high acceptability as 93% of parents, and all questioned children reported the formulation to be acceptable or very acceptable. Staff reported administering pODT in these children without problems. None of the children showed distress on receipt of pODT. We conclude that the proposed child-friendly dosage form provides a convenient option for oral drug administration and is expected to enhance drug-adherence in pediatric patients.

Age-appropriate solid oral formulations for pediatric applications with a focus on multiparticulates and minitablets: Summary of September 2019 EuPFI workshop.

This paper presents the output of a workshop held at the 11th Annual Conference of EuPFI (European Paediatric Formulation Initiative), in September 2019 in Malmo, Sweden, on the development of multiparticulates and minitablets as pediatric formulations. The workshop focused on three specific facets of pediatric drug development, namely selection of the formulation platform, selection of the package or dosing device, and administration of minitablets/multiparticulates with soft food. The workshop discussion indicated significant interest in the use of these dosage forms, filled into stick-packs or capsules, as age-appropriate formulations for younger children, along with a growing consensus that larger sized tablets and capsules designed for adults are often also suitable for adolescents. Among the areas that were identified as technical challenges were: understanding the acceptability of multiparticulates and minitablets relative to alternate formulations; the need for a streamlined approach to compatibility testing with soft foods; the desire to avoid the need to co-administer these products with soft food; and the need for more suitable dosing devices.

Study of drug particle distributions within mini-tablets using synchrotron X-ray microtomography and superpixel image clustering.

Uniform drug distribution within fast disintegrating tablets is a key quality measure to ensure a reliable, steady, and targeted release of the contained active pharmaceutical ingredients. In this work, the drug particle distribution in mini-tablets was studied with synchrotron phase contrast X-ray microtomography. Mini-tablets had a weight of 9.5 mg and a drug load from 2.5% to 20%. Moxidectin, a drug used for treatment of parasitic infections, was used as a model compound. Drug content covered a range from 91% to 121% of the target dose. A linear iterative clustering (SLIC) superpixel method was used for segmentation, analysis, and visualization of the spatial distribution of individual tablet components (i.e., pores, excipients, and drug). Results show that the drug was not uniformly distributed within the tablet, revealing an increasing drug load towards the tablets' outer boundaries and thus indicative of a radial displacement of drug particles during compaction. The presented method can be used for the quantitative analysis of drug content and drug distribution within pharmaceutical tablets, allowing for the optimization of fast disintegrating formulations. The results also affirm that that drug loads up to 20% will not lead to segregation for moxidectin.

Stability investigation of FCC-based tablets for oral suspension with caffeine and oxantel pamoate as model drugs.

Tablets for oral suspension (TOS) present a convenient alternative dosage form to conventional tablets. Dispersed in a glass of water or on a spoon, such tablets can be easily administered, which can become beneficial for pediatric or geriatric patients. The novel excipient functionalized calcium carbonate (FCC), consisting of calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate, has already shown to be suitable to produce orally disintegrating placebo tablets. In this study, the influence of formulation composition on disintegration time in water and artificial saliva was investigated using caffeine and oxantel pamoate as model drugs, reflecting BCS class 1 and BCS class 4, respectively. The optimized formulation for each model drug underwent a stress test. The results show that the drug content in DTs was not influenced by FCC under stressed conditions, however the disintegration and dissolution performance was affected by temperature and humidity. It can be concluded that it was possible to produce TOS characterized by rapid disintegration complemented by high physical stability of the tablets and chemical stability of the drug.

In vitro characterization and mouthfeel study of functionalized calcium carbonate in orally disintegrating tablets.

Orally disintegrating tablets (ODT) are comfortable and safe drug delivery methods beneficial for all age groups of patients. ODTs are characterized by fast disintegration, high physical stability, taste masking and acceptable mouthfeel. In this work, the applicability of Functionalized Calcium Carbonate (FCC) to formulate ODTs with enhanced mouthfeel was elaborated and tested for acceptability on twenty healthy volunteers, using a 10-step visual analog scale Mechanical characteristics of the ODTs were examined using Heckel analysis, modified Heckel analysis and Leuenberger equation. Disintegration time was measured with the tensiometer method and analyzed for disintegration kinetics with a system of ODE. As a result, it was shown that the tablet was well accepted in healthy volunteers, disintegrated fast in vivo and correlates well with the mathematical model. Additionally, the compactibility and the physical stability were preserved yielding high porosity to absorb liquid necessary for disintegration. In vitro disintegration time was successfully linked to in vivo disintegration time. These findings lead to the conclusion that FCC is applicable to use in ODT dosage forms and mouthfeel was successfully enhanced to a pleasant result without losing the unique characteristics of FCC.

Characterization of new functionalized calcium carbonate-polycaprolactone composite material for application in geometry-constrained drug release formulation development.

A new mineral-polymer composite (FCC-PCL) performance was assessed to produce complex geometries to aid in development of controlled release tablet formulations. The mechanical characteristics of a developed material such as compactibility, compressibility and elastoplastic deformation were measured. The results and comparative analysis versus other common excipients suggest efficient formation of a complex, stable and impermeable geometries for constrained drug release modifications under compression. The performance of the proposed composite material has been tested by compacting it into a geometrically altered tablet (Tablet-In-Cup, TIC) and the drug release was compared to commercially available product. The TIC device exhibited a uniform surface, showed high physical stability, and showed absence of friability. FCC-PCL composite had good binding properties and good compactibility. It was possible to reveal an enhanced plasticity characteristic of a new material which was not present in the individual components. The presented FCC-PCL composite mixture has the potential to become a successful tool to formulate controlled-release dosage solid forms.