Manufacturing pharmaceutical mini-tablets for pediatric patients using drop-on-demand printing

Area of Science:

• Pharmaceutical manufacturing
• Drug delivery systems
• Pediatric medicine

Background:

• Traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing often overlooks smaller patient groups, like children, due to limited dose strengths.
• Pharmaceutical mini-tablets offer a promising solution for flexible dosing, ease of swallowing, and tailored drug release, particularly for pediatric populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel manufacturing technique for pharmaceutical mini-tablets using drop-on-demand (DoD) printing.
• To evaluate the performance of DoD printing for various melt-based formulations.
• To quantify critical quality attributes (CQAs) such as content uniformity and dissolution behavior of the produced mini-tablets.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a drop-on-demand (DoD) printing system to generate precise droplets of a melt-based pharmaceutical formulation.
• Solidified the droplets in an inert solvent bath to form individual mini-tablets.
• Assessed content uniformity and dissolution profiles of the manufactured mini-tablets.

Main Results:

• The DoD printing technique successfully produced pharmaceutical mini-tablets meeting regulatory specifications for content uniformity.
• Dissolution behavior of the mini-tablets was consistent and could be customized by altering excipients.
• The developed method demonstrated feasibility for producing patient-centric dosage forms.

Conclusions:

• Drop-on-demand printing is a viable and effective method for manufacturing pharmaceutical mini-tablets with controlled quality attributes.
• This technology enables personalized dosing and improved drug administration, especially for pediatric patients.
• Further research can explore broader applications and refine the technique for various pharmaceutical formulations.