The effect of hot-melt extrusion on the mechanical properties of polymers formulated in solid dispersions
The laboratory of Pharmaceutical Technology at Ghent University combines innovative research topics on formulation (mainly solid dosage forms) with a strong industrial focus. For pharmaceutical applications hot-melt extrusion (HME) is considered as an effective process to formulate solid dispersions, due to its advantages such as solvent-free process, possibility to operate continuously and high-throughput.
This research-project focusses on direct compression of pharmaceutical polymers both processed and unprocessed. A special interest has arised for the tableting of solid dispersions prepared by hot-melt extrusion (HME), since there is evidence that processing techniques like HME could alter the mechanical properties of pharmaceuticals, which may impede further processability (e.g. tableting). Therefore, the overall objective of this study is to get a better fundamental understanding of the impact of HME on the mechanical properties of polymers commonly used in solid dispersion formulations.
Insight into those (altered) properties will allow to design a strategy towards the optimization of the extrusion process as well as the formulation used for HME and downstream processes such as milling/tableting.
