Arden 13 Revised 10 3 12 

Pharmaceutical Materials Science and Engineering—Mechanical Characterization of Predictive Tools for Rapid Drug Product Development 

 

Overview

Over the last decade, pharmaceutical materials science has established itself as the foundation for Quality-by-Design (QbD) product development, and significant advances in the application of materials science have been made to understand the functionality of excipients and active pharmaceutical ingredients and how they influence the performance of formulations. Mathematical modeling can lend considerable insight and predictive ability to aid in development of difficult formulations, e.g., high drug loading, complex tablet shapes, or multi-layer tablets. Both qualitative insight as well as quantitative modeling and prediction are possible when accurate material properties are known and their combined influence in a multicomponent formulation can be understood theoretically and empirically.

The implementation of QbD in pharmaceutical tablet product development has been largely relying on statistical approach, i.e., design of experiments (DOE). Although useful in identifying a design space, DOE typically is resource intensive and does not provide mechanistic understanding of the performance of a formulation. A seamless integration between materials science and DOE is a key for truly achieving QbD in product development.

In this conference, key materials science and engineering principles applicable to tablet design will be covered, e.g., relationship between mechanical properties and compaction behavior, crystal and particle engineering for superior tableting performance, and powder flow measurement. This conference will provide formulation scientists both basic knowledge in materials science and advanced techniques that can be used to facilitate the design of tablet product.  

Goals and Objectives

The aforementioned areas will be addressed in this conference and the primary objectives are:

  • to review fundamental mechanical properties of pharmaceutical solids and the methods to measure them,
  • to review theoretical modeling of particle mixing and simulation tools of powder compaction, and
  • to apply mechanical properties in drug product development following QbD approach.
Cosponsor

This workshop is cosponsored with EUFEPS.

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