Selecting key parameters in pharmaceutical formulations by principal component analysis

The role of principal component analysis in the selection of pharmaceutical formulations is presented. The objective and the procedure of the analysis are discussed in detail. The technique was successfully applied to a system consisting of 10 response variables (tablet properties). Analysis of the results showed that the first component (dissolution) and components one and two together (dissolution and disintegration) contributed 95.4 and 99.3%, respectively, to the overall information about the formulations and that eight of 10 response parameters contributed nothing further to the overall information. The results obtained from this method of analysis may be found useful for achieving economy in both cost and time of measuring response. Principal component analysis also provides a basis for understanding the underlying mechanism of the system under consideration.