Suitability of Wurster-Fluid Bed technique for functional Eudragit L-100 coating on tablet cores

Abstract

Film coating of solid dosage forms in pharmaceutical manufacturing is carried out using range of equipment, process parameters and coating formulations to achieve the quality target profile of the dosage form. Besides for aesthetic reasons, film coatings are mostly applied to modify the dissolution behaviour of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Currently, a number of coater types are used in pharmaceutical industry, including drum, fluid bed, rotary and continuous coaters. The end-point of coating process is usually defined by the amount of applied coating dispersion or weight gain of coated dosage forms. However, these measurements provide little information on coating quality attributes such as coating thickness, uniformity etc. Other monitoring techniques are scanning electron microscopy, Near infrared (NIR) or Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) (Hasar et al., 2013). The aim of this research was to examine the suitability of Wurster-Fluid bed technique for functional Eudragit L100 coating on tablet cores by monitoring critical attributes during the process.