Spray Drying for Pharmaceutical Raw Materials: A Systematic Review on Enhancing Bioavailability and Stability

Area of Science:

• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Spray drying is a widely used pharmaceutical technique due to its scalability and cost-effectiveness.
• It allows for precise control over the solid-state properties of drug formulations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the impact of spray drying on the bioavailability and stability of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and natural products.
• To compare spray drying with other drying methods and identify areas for improvement in formulation development.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature review of studies published between 2021 and 2025 from PubMed and Scopus.
• Analysis of 27 studies comparing spray-dried formulations (solid dispersions, S-SNEDDS, microencapsulation) with untreated controls.

Main Results:

• Solid dispersions (SDs) showed 9-20-fold AUC enhancements and 2-6-fold dissolution improvements.
• Solid self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (S-SNEDDS) achieved 4-9.9-fold AUC enhancements.
• Microencapsulation improved oxidative stability and encapsulation efficiency for natural products.

Conclusions:

• Spray drying offers superior scalability and particle engineering control over freeze or vacuum drying.
• Carrier selection (e.g., PVP, HPMC, Soluplus, maltodextrin) significantly influences formulation benefits.
• Further research is needed to address carrier comparisons, drying kinetics, scale-up, and regulatory challenges.