Nanosuspensions as advanced printing ink for accurate dosing of poorly soluble drugs in personalized medicines

Folic acid was used as a model drug to demonstrate the advantages of formulating poorly soluble drugs as nanosuspensions and their use in an inkjet-type printing technique to produce personalized medicines. 10% folic acid nanosuspensions stabilized with Tween 20, a stabilizer showing the best wetting potential for folic acid, were prepared via high pressure homogenization. The particle size of the folic acid nanosuspension was well below 5 μm being a prerequisite for inkjet type printing technique. A good reproducibility of the particle size of folic acid nanosuspension prepared via high pressure homogenization was found. As indicated by the zeta potential the formulation showed a good storage stability. High pressure homogenization had no influence on the crystalline state of folic acid. An increase in the saturation solubility by 53.7% was found reducing the particle size from the micrometer range to the nanometer range. The dissolution velocity of the folic acid nanosuspension was significantly enhanced compared to a folic acid suspension, i.e. after 5 min 78.6% of the folic acid was dissolved from the nanosuspension and only 6.2% from the suspension. Moreover, the printing of 10% folic acid nanosuspension could be successfully demonstrated.