Development of a design space and predictive statistical model for capsule filling of low-fill-weight inhalation products

Quality by Design in Pulmonary Drug Delivery: A Review on Dry Powder Inhaler Development, Nanotherapy Approaches, and Regulatory Considerations

Dry powder inhalers (DPIs) are state-of-the-art pulmonary drug delivery systems. This article explores the transformative impact of nanotechnology on DPIs, emphasizing the Quality Target Product Profile (QTPP) with a focus on aerodynamic performance and particle characteristics. It navigates global regulatory frameworks, underscoring the need for safety and efficacy standards. Additionally, it highlights the emerging field of nanoparticulate dry powder inhalers, showcasing their potential to enhance targeted drug delivery in respiratory medicine. This concise overview is a valuable resource for researchers, physicians, and pharmaceutical developers, providing insights into the development and commercialization of advanced inhalation systems.

Question-based review for pharmaceutical development: An enhanced quality approach

Over the last years, the pharmaceutical industry has faced real challenges regarding quality assurance. In this context, the establishment of more holistic approaches to the pharmaceutical development has been encouraged. The emergence of the Quality by Design (QbD) paradigm as systematic, scientific and risk-based methodology introduced a new concept of pharmaceutical quality. In essence, QbD can be interpreted as a strategy to maximize time and cost savings. An in-depth understanding of the formulation and manufacturing process is demanded to optimize the safety, efficacy and quality of a drug product at all stages of development. This innovative approach streamlines the pharmaceutical Research and Development (R&D) process, provides greater manufacturing flexibility and reduces regulatory burden. To assist in QbD implementation, International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) organized and launched QbD principles in their guidance for industry, identifying key concepts and tools to design and develop a high-quality drug product. Despite the undeniable advantages of the QbD approach, and the widespread information on QbD regulatory expectations, its full implementation in the pharmaceutical field is still limited. The present review aims to establish a crosswise overview on the current application status of QbD within the framework of the ICH guidelines (ICH Q8(R2) - Q14 and ICH Q2(R2)). Moreover, it outlines the way information gathered from the QbD methodology is being harmonized in Marketing Authorization Applications (MAAs) for European market approval. This work also highlights the challenges that hinder the deployment of the QbD strategy as a standard practice.

Focusing on powder processing in dry powder inhalation product development, manufacturing and performance

Dry powder inhalers (DPI) are well established products for the delivery of actives via the pulmonary route. Various DPI products are marketed or developed for the treatment of local lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma or cystic fibrosis as well as systemic diseases targeted through inhaled delivery (i.e. Diabetes Mellitus). One of the key prerequisites of DPI formulations is that the aerodynamic size of the drug particles needs to be below 5 µm to enter deeply into the respiratory tract. These inherently cohesive inhalable size particles are either formulated as adhesive mixture with coarse carrier particles like lactose called carrier-based DPI or are formulated as free-flowing carrier-free particles (e.g. soft agglomerates, large hollow particles). In either case, it is common practice that drug and/or excipient particles of DPI formulations are obtained by processing API and API/excipients. The DPI manufacturing process heavily involves several particle and powder technologies such as micronization of the API, dry blending, powder filling and other particle engineering processes such as spray drying, crystallization etc. In this context, it is essential to thoroughly understand the impact of powder/particle properties and processing on the quality and performance of the DPI formulations. This will enable prediction of the processability of the DPI formulations and controlling the manufacturing process so that meticulously designed formulations are able to be finally developed as the finished DPI dosage form. This article is intended to provide a concise account of various aspects of DPI powder processing, including the process understanding and material properties that are important to achieve the desired DPI product quality. Various endeavors of model informed formulation/process design and development for DPI powder and PAT enabled process monitoring and control are also discussed.

A Quality by Design Framework for Capsule-Based Dry Powder Inhalers

Capsule-based dry powder inhalers (cDPIs) are widely utilized in the delivery of pharmaceutical powders to the lungs. In these systems, the fundamental nature of the interactions between the drug/formulation powder, the capsules, the inhaler device, and the patient must be fully elucidated in order to develop robust manufacturing procedures and provide reproducible lung deposition of the drug payload. Though many commercially available DPIs utilize a capsule-based dose metering system, an in-depth analysis of the critical factors associated with the use of the capsule component has not yet been performed. This review is intended to provide information on critical factors to be considered for the application of a quality by design (QbD) approach for cDPI development. The quality target product profile (QTPP) defines the critical quality attributes (CQAs) which need to be understood to define the critical material attributes (CMA) and critical process parameters (CPP) for cDPI development as well as manufacturing and control.

A two-step approach for fluidized bed granulation in pharmaceutical processing: Assessing different models for design and control

Various modeling techniques were used to understand fluidized bed granulation using a two-step approach. First, Plackett-Burman design (PBD) was used to identify the high-risk factors. Then, Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to analyze and optimize those high-risk factors. The relationship between the high-risk input variables (inlet air temperature X1, binder solution rate X3, and binder-to-powder ratio X5) and quality attributes (flowability Y1, temperature Y2, moisture content Y3, aggregation index Y4, and compactability Y5) of the process was investigated using response surface model (RSM), partial least squares method (PLS) and artificial neural network of multilayer perceptron (MLP). The morphological study of the granules was also investigated using a scanning electron microscope. The results showed that X1, X3, and X5 significantly affected the properties of granule. The RSM, PLS and MLP models were found to be useful statistical analysis tools for a better mechanistic understanding of granulation. The statistical analysis results showed that the RSM model had a better ability to fit the quality attributes of granules compared to the PLS and MLP models. Understanding the effect of process parameters on granule properties provides the basis for modulating the granulation parameters and optimizing the product performance at the early development stage of pharmaceutical products.