Powder Rheology For Pharmaceutical Development

By Sarah Cotts and Morgan Ulrich

A challenging part of pharmaceutical research and development is finding the right formulation for a new product. This is especially true for many novel therapeutics where the active pharmaceutical ingredient is costly, as its usage must be minimized in testing and development. Additionally, it is crucial to consider the behavior of the active pharmaceutical ingredient under various processing conditions, including mixing, storage, dispensing, and tableting.

An effective tool in accelerating pharmaceutical formulation and development is powder rheology. Powder rheology can be utilized to comprehensively characterize the physical behavior of the powders being used, the stability of the powders, and the mechanical behavior of the final tablet product. This data plays a critical role in the selection of powder blends that streamline processing and minimize issues such as poor flow and granulation.