ECTS: 15
Hovedvejleder: René Holm, reho@sdu.dk, 65502375
Medvejleder
Nadina Zulbeari, SDU (FKF) nazu@sdu.dk, 65507597
Mathias Dam Mønster Sørensen (FKF) mathiasdms@sdu.dk, 65509333
Baggrund for projektet
Pharmaceutical suspensions are widely used in the pharmaceutical field, both intended for oral and parenteral drug delivery (i.e., long-acting injectables). They have a rather simple formulation composition with main components comprised of an active pharmaceutical compound, an aqueous dispersion medium (typically water), and surfactant and/or polymers as stabilizers. Even with a simple formulation composition, selecting a suitable stabilizer and corresponding concentration can be time-consuming as it varies in type, combination, and concentration/ratio, all depending on the drug compound and the adsorption of the stabilizer onto the solid drug particles. In theory, the surfactants will be adsorbed at the interface between the solid particle and aqueous dispersion media with the prerequisite of an affinity between the surfactant and solid drug particles. In some cases, differences in suspension behavior have been observed when freshly made surfactant solutions were used as dispersion media during preparation compared to prior stored solutions as larger sizes of drug particles were measured right after milling compared to particle sizes after a few days of storage, indicating the physical stabilization equilibrium needs to be achieved. The working hypothesis for this is that surfactants differ in their kinetics to saturate surfaces as seen during pendent drop measurements in previous projects.
The project will therefore work with a range of different surfactants - both freshly made solutions and stored – which will be used to prepare suspensions to determine if the surfactant solutions need time to equilibrate in order to provide optimal stabilization during milling and subsequent storage. Empirical data will be collected to understand the adsorption behavior of surfactants onto the solid drug particles and potentially linked to the behind-laying adsorption kinetics.
Problemformulering
Do surfactant solutions need to be stored for equilibration purposes prior to suspension preparation?
Metoder
Suspensions will be prepared using media milling by dual centrifugation and characterized by laser diffraction.
All data generated are physical-chemical in nature, hence not associated with any special ethical concerns. All raw data are collected and organized in an easy-to-understand way – and handed over to the supervisor at the end of the project.
Vejledning
Biweekly meetings that include data presentation and interpretations for discussions. Daily interactions are also available for guidance.