Wet-Media Milling of Colloidal Drug Suspensions Stabilized by Means of Charged Nanoparticles

Nanomilling of Drugs for Bioavailability Enhancement: A Holistic Formulation-Process Perspective

Preparation of drug nanoparticles via wet media milling (nanomilling) is a very versatile drug delivery platform and is suitable for oral, injectable, inhalable, and buccal applications. Wet media milling followed by various drying processes has become a well-established and proven formulation approach especially for bioavailability enhancement of poorly water-soluble drugs. It has several advantages such as organic solvent-free processing, tunable and relatively high drug loading, and applicability to a multitude of poorly water-soluble drugs. Although the physical stability of the wet-milled suspensions (nanosuspensions) has attracted a lot of attention, fundamental understanding of the process has been lacking until recently. The objective of this review paper is to present fundamental insights from available published literature while summarizing the recent advances and highlighting the gap areas that have not received adequate attention. First, stabilization by conventionally used polymers/surfactants and novel stabilizers is reviewed. Then, a fundamental understanding of the process parameters, with a focus on wet stirred media milling, is revealed based on microhydrodynamic models. This review is expected to bring a holistic formulation-process perspective to the nanomilling process and pave the way for robust process development scale-up. Finally, challenges are indicated with a view to shedding light on future opportunities.

Acoustic spectroscopy: A powerful analytical method for the pharmaceutical field?

Acoustics is one of the emerging technologies developed to minimize processing, maximize quality and ensure the safety of pharmaceutical, food and chemical products. The operating principle of acoustic spectroscopy is the measurement of the ultrasound pulse intensity and phase after its propagation through a sample. The main goal of this technique is to characterise concentrated colloidal dispersions without dilution, in such a way as to be able to analyse non-transparent and even highly structured systems. This review presents the state of the art of ultrasound-based techniques in pharmaceutical pre-formulation and formulation steps, showing their potential, applicability and limits. It reports in a simplified version the theory behind acoustic spectroscopy, describes the most common equipment on the market, and finally overviews different studies performed on systems and materials used in the pharmaceutical or related fields.