Chemical drug stability in lipids, modified lipids, and polyethylene oxide-containing formulations

To critique the stability complications seen in formulating poorly water-soluble, problematic drugs in lipids, modified lipids, and polyethylene oxide solvents and surfactants in hard and soft gelatin capsules as well as some parenterals, a literature search was performed and personal experiences, and those of colleagues, collated. The literature is replete with examples of molecules undergoing rapid oxidative degradation in the presence of polyethylene oxide based solvents and surfactants as well as in the presence of unsaturated lipids. More recently appreciated is instability caused by the reaction of amine and amide drugs, with formaldehyde, formic acid found in many of these solvents as impurities and other degradation byproducts of the solvents themselves. One would expect acylation and transacylation reactions to be more common than reported but the literature has some good examples. An added complexity is occasionally seen with the use of hard and soft gelatin capsules with these solvents. The chemical stability of drugs in liquid and semi-solid formulations in the presence of lipids, modified lipids, and polyoxyethylene oxide-based solvents and surfactants can be complex, further exacerbated by the use of gelatin capsules, and can lead to a plethora of degradation pathways often not seen when the same drugs are formulated in solid dosage forms.