01. October 2018
In this study, a set of 24 experiments was designed to understand the combined effect of different process parameters, i.e. material feed rate, liquid-to-solid (L/S) ratio, screw speed, and screw configuration on the residence time distribution, granule morphology, and particle size distribution in twin screw wet granulation of microcrystalline cellulose. It was shown that residence times were longer at higher L/S and lower screw speeds. However, the most dominant effect on mean residence time...
28. March 2018
In twin screw wet granulation process, the binding excipients could be added in two ways: premixed with powder materials before granulation or dissolved in water as a solution. In this paper, the feasibility of using micronized lactose as a solid binder excipient in twin screw granulation process was examined. Different proportions of micronized lactose were mixed with lactose and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) powder before granulation, respectively. As a comparison, hydroxypropyl cellulose...
05. March 2018
This study presents a framework for process and product development on a continuous direct compression manufacturing platform. A challenging sustained release formulation with high content of a poorly flowing low density drug was selected. Two HPMC grades were evaluated as matrix former: standard Methocel CR and directly compressible Methocel DC2. The feeding behavior of each formulation component was investigated by deriving feed factor profiles.
16. August 2016
Abstract HPMC is a popular matrix former to formulate tablets with extended drug release. Tablets with HPMC are preferentially produced by direct compression. However, granulation is often required prior to tableting to overcome poor flowability of the formulation. While continuous twin screw granulation has been extensively evaluated for granulation of immediate release formulations, twin screw granulation of controlled release formulations including the dissolution behavior of the...
09. May 2016
The present research is focused on developing a novel, scaled-down approach based on the liquid droplet-powder bed interactions for the estimation of an optimal liquid to solid ratio (L/S) required in the twin screw wet granulation. A single droplet ‘powder-bed-nucleation’ process using compacted powder beds of α-lactose monohydrate (soluble) and microcrystalline cellulose (insoluble, swells upon water addition) with varying proportions of hydroxypropyl cellulose, was used to produce wet...
14. March 2016
Developed approximately 100 years ago for natural rubber/plastics applications, processes via twin screw extrusion (TSE) now generate some of the most cutting-edge drug delivery systems available. After 25 or so years of usage in pharmaceutical environments, it has become evident why TSE processing offers significant advantages as compared to other manufacturing techniques. The well-characterized nature of the TSE process lends itself to ease of scale-up and process optimization while also...
24. September 2015
The article describes the application of a twin-screw granulation process to enhance the dissolution rate of the poorly water soluble drug, ibuprofen (IBU). A quality-by-design (QbD) approach was used to manufacture IBU loaded granules via hot-melt extrusion (HME) processing. More