A physical and chemical comparison of material from a conventional spray-dried system and a single particle...

When assessing the suitability of potential drug/polymer systems for improving drug bioavailability, substantial efficiency gains can be achieved through the development and application of rapid miniaturised screening methods. For this to be possible new methods of small-scale formulation manufacture that produce materials equivalent to full-scale manufacture are urgently required. In this work, we use Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Confocal Raman Microscopy (CRM) to investigate the potential physical and chemical equivalence of individually dried particles generated using a DRYING KINETICS ANALYZER™ (DKA) with material from a conventional spray-drier. For our model system of griseofulvin (at loadings of 2.5%, w/w and 20%, w/w) and PEG 6000, the results demonstrate physicochemical equivalence between the two spray-drying methods for the same drug loading. Thus we suggest that single particle spray drying offers a viable and novel route to the production of materials for miniaturised methods of screening candidate drug/polymer formulations.