Strategies for particle design using supercritical fluid technologies

doi:10.1016/S1461-5347(99)00209-6

Pharmaceutical Science & Technology Today

Volume 2, Issue 11, 1 November 1999, Pages 430-440

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1461-5347(99)00209-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Major advances in drug delivery and targeting over recent years have highlighted the limitations of conventional particle formation and pretreatment processes in fine-tuning the characteristics required. The alternative strategy of using supercritical fluid technologies for crystal and particle engineering of pharmaceutical materials and drug delivery systems shows great promise in this area. The design of particles for specific drug delivery needs – such as particle size control or polymorphic purity – is increasingly seen as a viable option. In describing recent progress in this field, this review provides a perspective of the current position of this platform technology and considers the possibilities and challenges for future applications and developments.

Section snippets

Choice of SF

All gases can form SFs above specific sets of critical conditions, although extremely high temperatures and/or pressures may be required. Several SFs with corresponding T_c and P_c values have been used for particle formation in several industrial sectors. For pharmaceutical applications, the most widely used SF is carbon dioxide (SFCO₂) because of its low critical temperature (31.1°C), attractiveness for heat sensitive materials including products sourced from biologicals, as well as being

Strategies for particle formation using SF methods

The growing pharmaceutical interest in ‘smart’ particles for ever increasing sophistication in drug delivery systems, coupled with the regulatory drivers of focused attention on environmental issues, has highlighted the need for alternative particle-formation processes. Such procedures should be directed towards providing those features identified for an ideal particle-formation process (Box 1). Particularly important issues for the pharmaceutical industry are to achieve a clean,

Particle design for drug delivery with SF methods

Particle formation by supercritical methods is emerging as a viable platform technology for pharmaceuticals and drug delivery systems. If the requirements of an ideal particle- formation process are considered (Box 1), SF processing is being recognized as achieving many of these objectives, particularly with recent developments in the scale of operation³⁸. However, although an increasing literature is appearing, fundamental mechanistic understanding of the SF solvent and antisolvent processes

Scale-up and GMP processing

The preparation of particulate products of small molecule pharmaceuticals, biological materials and composite formulations for drug delivery systems by SF processing provides several distinct advantages over conventional processing. Similarly, in terms of GMP requirements several attractive features are apparent, especially in providing a totally enclosed, single-step process for controlled particle formation.

Some advances have been made in mechanistic understanding of SF particle-formation

Summary and future perspective

As requirements and specifications for ‘smart’ particles for drug delivery systems become more demanding, the traditional particle preparation and pretreatment procedures are often found to be unsuitable and inadequate. Key issues for emerging replacement technologies are that they provide opportunities for crystal engineering and particle design, be defined scientifically such that by manipulating the process product can be fine tuned, and that the process is readily scaled for manufacturing

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ReviewStrategies for particle design using supercritical fluid technologies

Abstract

Section snippets

Choice of SF

Strategies for particle formation using SF methods

Particle design for drug delivery with SF methods

Scale-up and GMP processing

Summary and future perspective

J. Aerosol Sci.

Fluid Phase Equilibria

Int. J. Pharm.

J. Pharm. Sci.

J. Supercrit. Fluids

J. Supercrit. Fluids

J. Supercrit. Fluids,

Int. J. Pharm.

J. Cryst Growth

J. Pharm. Sci.

Int. J. Pharm.

J. Pharm. Sci.

J. Pharm. Sci.

J. Pharm. Sci.

Int. J. Pharm

Eur. J. Pharm. Biopharm.

Am. Inst. Chem. Eng. J.

Proc. R. Soc. London

Proc. R. Soc. London

Supercritical Fluid Extraction Principles and Practice

Chem. Ind.

Biotechnol. Prog.

Chem. Thermochim.

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

J. Pharm. Pharmacol.

Pharm. Res.

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

J. Aerosol. Sci.

J. Supercrit. Fluids

Review
Strategies for particle design using supercritical fluid technologies