The overall aim of this study was to prepare a nasal powder formulation of salmon calcitonin (sCT) using an absorption enhancer to improve its bioavailability. In this work, powder formulations for nasal delivery of sCT were studied using various absorption enhancers and stabilizers. Powders were prepared by two different methods: conventional spray-drying (SD) and novel supercritical fluid-assisted spray-drying (SASD) to investigate the role of CO2 in the particle formation process. The prepared sCT powder formulations were characterized by several analyses; powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy method. The particle size distribution was also evaluated. In vivo absorption tests were carried out in Sprague-Dawley rat using the prepared powder formulations, and the results were compared to those of raw sCT. Quantitative analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) indicated that sCT was chemically stable after both the SD and SASD processes. Results of PXRD, SEM, and FT-IR did not indicate a strong interaction or defragmentation of sCT. The in vivo absorption test showed that SD- and SASD-processed sCT powders increased the bioavailability of the drug when compared to the nasal administration of raw sCT. In addition, SASD-processed sCT exhibited higher nasal absorption when compared with SD-processed sCT in all formulations due to a reduction of particle size. The results from this study illustrate that the preparation of nasal powders using the SASD process could be a promising approach to improve nasal absorption of sCT.

Computational data mining is of interest in the pharmaceutical arena for the analysis of massive amounts of data and to assist in the management and utilization of the data. In this study, a data mining approach was used to predict the miscibility of a drug and several excipients, using Hansen solubility parameters (HSPs) as the data set. The K-means clustering algorithm was applied to predict the miscibility of indomethacin with a set of more than 30 compounds based on their partial solubility parameters [dispersion forces , polar forces and hydrogen bonding ]. The miscibility of the compounds was determined experimentally, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), in a separate study. The results of the K-means algorithm and DSC were compared to evaluate the K-means clustering prediction performance using the HSPs three-dimensional parameters, the two-dimensional parameters such as volume-dependent solubility and hydrogen bonding , and selected single (one-dimensional) parameters. Using HSPs, the prediction of miscibility by the K-means algorithm correlated well with the DSC results, with an overall accuracy of 94%. The prediction accuracy was the same (94%) when the two-dimensional parameters or the hydrogen-bonding (one-dimensional) parameter were used. The hydrogen-bonding parameter was thus a determining factor in predicting miscibility in such set of compounds, whereas the dispersive and polar parameters had only a weak correlation. The results show that data mining approach is a valuable tool for predicting drug–excipient miscibility because it is easy to use, is time and cost-effective, and is material sparing.

Capturing solubility advantages of cocrystals is of great interest, and thus to understand the mechanism by which different excipients could maintain the supersaturation generated by cocrystals at the course of absorption in aqueous media is essential. To achieve this aim, the impact of different excipients on dissolution behavior of indomethacin-saccharin (IND-SAC) were monitored by measuring the concentrations of cocrystal components in the absence and presence of various concentration of excipients by HPLC, and solid phases were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry after each experiment and the potential of Raman spectroscopy for monitoring phase transformations in situ was tested. No dissolution advantage was offered by cocrystals in the absence of any solution additive. The polymer and surfactant used in the study increased the solubility of IND but not SAC. This differential solubilization effect is believed to have stabilized the cocrystals for a relevant period for the absorption to take place. This could be attributed to either decreased gap between supersaturation and saturation of the drug or drug interaction with the additives. Understanding the effects of excipients type and concentration on the transformation profile is vital for designing enabling formulations for cocrystals. The eutectic constant may be useful in selecting excipients for stabilizing cocrystals.

The 1:1 cocrystal between piroxicam and saccharin exhibits significantly deteriorated powder compaction properties compared to both coformers. The molecular origin of this effect is revealed by a systematic investigation of crystal mechanical properties, probed with nanoindentation, and crystal structure analysis. The order of bulk powder tabletability of the three materials is identical to that of single crystal plasticity (saccharin > piroxicam > cocrystal). The lowest plasticity of the cocrystal is confirmed by its highest crystal hardness and the highest yield strength. The low plasticity of the cocrystal is attributed to structural packing features that discourage plastic deformation. This work demonstrates that cocrystallization, even though it may be useful to improve pharmaceutically relevant properties, must be carefully evaluated to avoid unexpected problems in formulation and drug product manufacturing due to compromised mechanical properties.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of polymeric microcarriers on the in-vivo intranasal uptake of an anti-migraine drug for brain targeting. Mucoadhesive powder formulations consisted of antimigraine drug, zolmitriptan, and chitosans (various molecular weights and types) or hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC). Their suitability for nasal administration was evaluated by in-vitro and ex-vivo mucoadhesion and permeation tests. The formulations based on chitosan glutamate (CG) or HPMC were tested in-vivo because they showed good mucoadhesive properties and altered the permeation rate of the drug. The in-vivo results from intravenous infusion and nasal aqueous suspension of the drug or nasal particulate powders were compared. The plasmatic AUC values obtained within 8 h following intravenous administration appeared about three times higher than those obtained by nasal administration, independent of the formulations. Zolmitriptan concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid obtained from nasal and intravenous administrations were respectively 30 and 90 times lower than the concentrations of the drug in the blood. Thus, nasal administration potentiated the central zolmitriptan activity allowing a reduction of the drug peripheral levels, with respect to the intravenous administration. Among nasally administered formulations, CG microparticles showed the highest efficacy in promoting the central uptake of zolmitriptan within 1 h.

The purpose of this work was to characterize theophylline (THF) cocrystals prepared by spray drying in terms of the physicochemical properties and inhalation performance when aerosolized from a dry powder inhaler. Cocrystals of theophylline with urea (THF-URE), saccharin (THF-SAC) and nicotinamide (THF-NIC) were prepared by spray drying. Milled THF and THF-SAC cocrystals were also used for comparison. The physical purity, particle size, particle morphology and surface energy of the materials were determined. The in vitro aerosol performance of the spray-dried cocrystals, drug-alone and a drug-carrier aerosol, was assessed. The spray-dried particles had different size distributions, morphologies and surface energies. The milled samples had higher surface energy than those prepared by spray drying. Good agreement was observed between multi-stage liquid impinger and next-generation impactor in terms of assessing spray-dried THF particles. The fine particle fractions of both formulations were similar for THF, but drug-alone formulations outperformed drug-carrier formulations for the THF cocrystals. The aerosolization performance of different THF cocrystals was within the following rank order as obtained from both drug-alone and drug-carrier formulations: THF-NIC > THF-URE > THF-SAC. It was proposed that micromeritic properties dominate over particle surface energy in terms of determining the aerosol performance of THF cocrystals. Spray drying could be a potential technique for preparing cocrystals with modified physical properties.

Context:Identification of optimal solid form of an active pharmaceutical ingredient and form control are very important in drug development. Thus, the structural information of these forms and in-depth insight on the modes of molecular interactions are necessary, and vibrational spectroscopic methods are well suited for this purpose.Objective:In-depth structural analysis of different solid forms of indomethacin (IND) using Raman and infrared (IR) spectroscopy is the objective. We have investigated the modes of molecular interactions in polymorphs (α and γ), amorphous and discovered cocrystals of IND with nicotinamide (NIC) and trans-cinnamic acid (CIN) coformers.Materials and methods: The solid forms of IND have been prepared; their purity has been verified by differential scanning calorimetry and powder X-ray diffractometry and then studied in the solid-state by Raman and IR spectroscopy. The modes of the interactions were closely investigated from the vibrational data.Results: The key vibrational features of IND solid forms have been specified. The IR (C=O) band at 1713 cm−1 attributed to cyclic acid dimer of γ IND has disappeared in IND–NIC/CIN whilst retained in IND–SAC cocrystal.Discussion:IND cocrystallizes in different conformations and crystal lattices with different coformers. The cyclic acid dimer of IND has been kept on its cocrystallization with saccharin and it could have been broken with NIC and CIN.Conclusions: The complementary nature of Raman and IR spectroscopy allowed unambiguous investigation of the chemical composition of pharmaceutical materials which is of particular importance in the absence of detailed structural information, as in the case of IND–NIC and IND–CIN.

Two-dimensional 1H double-quantum and 14N- 1H & 1H- 13C heteronuclear magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra recorded at natural isotopic abundance identify specific intermolecular COOH⋯N arom and CH arom⋯OC hydrogen-bonding interactions in the solid-state structure of an indomethacin-nicotinamide cocrystal, thus additionally proving cocrystal formation.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of carrier particle size on properties of dry powder and its effect on dry powder inhaler (DPI) performance. Commercial α-lactose-monohydrate, a commonly used carrier in DPI formulations, was carefully sieved to obtain different lactose size fractions, namely Lac A (90–125 μm), Lac B (63–90 μm), Lac C (45–63 μm), Lac D (20–45 μm), and Lac E (< 20 μm). The lactose samples were analysed in terms of size, shape, solid state, density, and flowability. Lactose particles were blended with budesonide (< 5 μm) powder to generate five different formulations. These formulations were then evaluated in terms of budesonide-lactose adhesion properties, drug content homogeneity, and in vitro aerosolisation performance. The results demonstrated that lactose samples with smaller particle volume mean diameter have higher amorphous lactose content, higher true density (linear, r2 = 0.9932), higher surface smoothness (linear, r2 = 0.8752), smaller angularity (linear, r2 = 0.921), smaller bulk density, higher porosity (linear, r2 = 0.914), poorer flowability, and higher specific surface area. In general, the smaller the lactose particles the smaller are the budesonide-lactose adhesion properties. Budesonide formulated with smaller lactose particles exhibited smaller aerodynamic diameter and higher amounts of budesonide were delivered to lower stages of the impactor indicating improved DPI aerosolisation performance. However, the use of lactose particles with smaller volume mean diameter had a detrimental effect on budesonide content homogeneity and caused an increase in the amounts of budesonide deposited on oropharyngeal region. Therefore, particle size of the lactose within dry powder inhaler formulations should be selected carefully. Accordingly, higher drug aerosolisation efficiency of lactose particles with smaller size may have to be balanced due to considerations of other disadvantages including poorer flowability, reduced formulation stability, higher potential side effects, and higher dose variability.

The primary aim of pharmaceutical materials engineering is the successful formulation and process development of pharmaceutical products. The diversity of solid forms available offers attractive opportunities for tailoring material properties. In this context, pharmaceutical cocrystals, multicomponent crystalline materials with definite stoichiometries often stabilised by hydrogen bonding, have recently emerged as interesting alternative solid forms with potential for improving the physical and biopharmaceutical properties of a drug substance. There are, however, gaps in our understanding of the screening, scale-up and formulation operations required for effective use of cocrystals in drug product development. The objective of this thesis was to improve fundamental understanding of the formation mechanisms, solution behaviour and solid-state properties of pharmaceutical cocrystals. The solution chemistry and solubility behaviour of a diverse set of cocrystals were studied. It was found that the thermodynamic stability regions of the cocrystals and their components were defined by the phase solubility diagrams. Spray drying was introduced as a new method of preparing cocrystals; the formation mechanisms are illustrated. The cocrystals were more soluble than the respective drugs alone and the solubility-pH profiles were able to be predicted by mathematical models using a eutectic point determination approach. The cocrystal solubility was pH-dependent and could be engineered by the choice of coformers; this is valuable information for designing robust formulations. The solubility advantage of cocrystals was retained by the use of excipients that imparted kinetic and thermodynamic stability. The retention of drug-coformer association in processed cocrystals has been revealed, introducing a novel concept with potential implications for solid dosage form development. The final study demonstrated that the structure of the crystals and the particle engineering processes affected the solidstate and bulk particle properties of the cocrystals.This thesis contributes to the field of pharmaceutical science by advancing our understanding of crystallization processes and formulation development, thus enabling pharmaceutical cocrystals into drug products.