Comparative study of the lubricant performance of Compritol 888 ATO either used by blending or by hot melt coating

Compritol 888 ATO is used as a lubricant in oral solid dosage formulations. It can also be used as a hot melt coating agent sprayed onto a powder. In this study, we compare the lubricant performance of Compritol 888 ATO either used by classical blending or by hot melt coating onto Lactopress by compression tests. In physical mix, the Compritol concentration does not affect the compressibility. The same compressibility is obtained with lactose coated by 0.5 or 1% of Compritol, but a higher compressibility can be observed with 2 and 3%. Cohesiveness of lactose depends on the process: hot melt coating induces a decrease of tablet tensile strength. In terms of forces transmission during compression phase and axial ejection pressures, Compritol used by hot melt coating allows for a concentration of 0.5% to directly obtain the lubricant performance of 3% of Compritol used by blending. These results suggest that the hot melt coating process induces an homogeneous repartition of the lubricant on the lactose surface, contrary to classical blending procedure. Thus, lubrication by hot melt coating seems to be a very efficient procedure. It could be used specifically for large surface area particulate systems producing a lot of friction.