Production and characterization of spray-dried theophylline powders prepared from fresh milk for potential use in paediatrics

Milk Oral Lyophilizates with Loratadine: Screening for New Excipients for Pediatric Use

The development of suitable formulations for the pediatric population remains a challenging field with great advances reported every year in terms of excipients and technology. When developing pediatric formulations, the acceptability of medicines represents a key element to consider. For this reason, milk can be a widely accepted excipient with taste-masking properties and supplementary advantages for drug solubility. In recent years, the orodispersible dosage forms have come onto the market as child-friendly formulations. The current study aimed to develop freeze-dried orodispersible dosage forms containing bovine milk or infant formulae as the main component. In the first stage, an exploratory study evaluated the mechanical properties of placebo milk formulations and the suitability of milk as a matrix-forming agent. As the appropriate mechanical strength to withstand manipulation was demonstrated, milk oral lyophilizates were loaded with a poorly soluble model API, loratadine. Hence, a D-optimal design was conducted to prepare milk lyophilizates with loratadine and to evaluate the effects of three factors (dose of loratadine, the lyophilizate size, and the type of milk) and their interactions. Finally, three formulations were prepared to confront the predictions of the DoE and further studied to thoroughly understand the observed effects. The experimental results showed the potential of milk in the development of oral lyophilizates loaded with different doses of suspended API.

Quantification of theophylline or paracetamol in milk matrices by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple, accurate and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was developed, validated and applied to the determination of either theophylline or paracetamol in milk-based samples. The method allowed drug quantification in fresh and powdered milk with a relatively short run time of analysis and it was also successfully applied to the quantification of the drugs in solid dosage forms intended for pediatric use. Moreover, the main significant advantages over other published works are the simplicity of the sample preparation, reduced assay time and sample loss. The method meets the International Conference on Harmonization guideline for analytical methods validation regarding specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, specificity and robustness as required by health authorities and applied by industry while designing and marketing new drug products. The technique encompasses the separation of the analytes with a reverse phase C₁₈ column under isocratic conditions and UV detection at 272 nm and 243 nm, respectively, for theophylline and paracetamol. The lower limit of quantification for both drugs was determined as 0.2 µg/mL and the between-batch accuracy was approximately 99.7%. This HPLC method allows quantification of theophylline and paracetamol in milk matrices and it can be applied in the design, development and production of milk-based pediatric dosage forms.