High-throughput NIR-chemometric methods for chemical and pharmaceutical characterization of sustained release tablets

The aim of this study was the development and validation of methods based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and chemometry, useful for characterization of sustained release (SR) tablets with indapamide, in terms of tablet composition (API and two excipients), in vitro drug release mechanism (k and n Peppas) and crushing strength. A calibration set consisting of 25 different tablets formulations containing API, HPMC and lactose at five different content levels in the range 100±20% relative to a targeted tablet composition, were manufactured by direct compression in order to develop the methods for prediction of tablet composition, and in vitro drug release mechanism. On the other hand, a 15 batches calibration set prepared at five different compression forces was used for development of methods for prediction of crushing strength. Moreover, independent batches were manufactured for validation of all methods Intact tablets were analyzed by transmission mode with NIRS, the spectra were pre-processed, and partial least square (PLS) regression was used to build prediction models. Cross-validation was carried out in order to select the optimal number of PLS factors for all models, and the best model was chosen based on their RMSECV and bias. All developed methods were validated in terms of trueness, precision and accuracy. Based on the validation results, the methods proposed in this work can successfully be applied for routine determination of indapamide, HPMC and lactose content of sustained release tablets, as well as for prediction of their in vitro drug release mechanism (k and n Peppas) and crushing strength.