Elezaj Valentinë, Lura Ard, Canha Luis, Breitkreutz Jörg
Institute of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, Heinrich Heine University, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Midas Pharma GmbH, 55218 Ingelheim, Germany.
Pharmaceutics. 2022 Mar 5;14(3):570. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14030570.
Epidermolysis bullosa is a genetically heterogenous skin fragility disorder with multiorgan involvement appearing already in newborn children. Severe progressive fibrosis follows skin blistering, mucosa lesions, and wound healing, favouring development of highly aggressive squamous cell carcinomas. Losartan potassium (LP) has been described to show positive effects; therefore, it was of clinical interest to develop 2 mm mini-tablets with LP for treatment of the affected children. Several challenges emerged during development: limited flowability and sticking to punches were observed in the first tableting experiments due to a high drug load, and a bitter taste of the LP was reported. Sticking to punches was reduced by using SMCC 50 and a combination of different lubricants; however, direct compression trials on a Korsch XM 12 rotary press were not successful due to compaction phenomena in the hopper. Thus, an intermediate dry granulation was successfully introduced. Two final formulations of the mini-tablets complied with the requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia regarding disintegration times (<15 min) and friability (<1.0%); mean tensile strengths amounted to about 1 MPa as a compromise between manufacturability and sufficient mechanical strength for further coating studies. The subsequent coating step succeeded delaying the initial drug release for more than 2 min. An acceptance value ≤15 was matched for the coated mini-tablets, and stability studies showed a promising shelf life.
大疱性表皮松解症是一种遗传性异质性皮肤脆性疾病,多器官受累在新生儿期就已出现。皮肤水疱、黏膜损伤和伤口愈合后会出现严重的进行性纤维化,易引发高度侵袭性的鳞状细胞癌。已有报道称氯沙坦钾(LP)显示出积极效果;因此,开发含LP的2毫米迷你片用于治疗患病儿童具有临床意义。开发过程中出现了几个挑战:由于药物负荷高,在首次压片实验中观察到流动性有限且冲头粘连,并且有报道称LP有苦味。通过使用SMCC 50和不同润滑剂的组合减少了冲头粘连;然而,在Korsch XM 12旋转压片机上进行的直接压片试验由于料斗中的压实现象而未成功。因此,成功引入了中间干法制粒。迷你片的两种最终制剂符合欧洲药典关于崩解时间(<15分钟)和脆碎度(<1.0%)的要求;平均抗张强度约为1兆帕,这是在可制造性和足够的机械强度之间的折衷,以便进行进一步的包衣研究。随后的包衣步骤成功地将药物的初始释放延迟了2分钟以上。包衣迷你片的接受值≤15,稳定性研究显示其保质期前景良好。