EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL STUDIES ON COMPACTION WITH APPLICATION ON PHARMACEUTICAL POWDERS Antonios Zavaliangos and Iosif Csaba Sinka GOALI - NSF/CMS
In contrast to the scientific advances in drug design, tablet processing has been dominated by empiricism, and it presents a bottleneck for transition to market of new discoveries. In this basic research project, Drexel University and Merck & Co., Inc. aim to develop a science basis for the compaction of pharmaceutical powders that leads to solid dosages. Specific objectives of this study are to: (i) establish experimental procedures for characterization of pharmaceutical powders under conditions characteristic of industrial operations. (ii) determine experimentally the origin of rate effects and their influence on the mechanical properties of tablets, (iii) formulate constitutive models that portray accurately the behavior of powder mixtures during compaction, (iv) develop design guidelines that will allow rational decision making in pharmaceutical powder formulation.
