Study of the Tableting Properties of MCR, a Newly Coprocessed Cellulose-based Direct Compression Excipient

Abstract

The current need for strategies to accelerate and optimize the efforts to develop new in-expensive multifunctional direct compression tableting excipients with minimum risk to the products has urged the workers in pharmaceutical industry field to search for a simple and low cost-effective technique to tailor and engineer multi-functional excipients. Developing new pharmaceutically inactive materials serving as excipients, new grades of existing excipients and co-processing of already existing excipients constitute the techniques utilized to develop multifunctional excipients [1-3]. Developing of new tableting excipients is a tedious and time consuming multi-stage process. In addition to that, the regulatory concerns and issues related to safety and toxicity assessment should be strictly followed. The co-processed excipients can be at high cost effective. Therefore, a great deal of attention was directed to co-processing as a means to develop multifunctional excipients [4-7]. This technique has been defined as particle engineering of individual excipients and excipient combinations using co-processing by virtue, of sub-particle modifications [4,5]. The workers in pharmaceutical industry field has accelerated the steps towards developing direct compression tableting excipients of high functionality in terms of flow, compression, good binding, improved lubricating efficiency and improved dilution potential could be developed [5-8]. Co-processed excipients are produced from two or more existing excipients of different chemical nature. Each excipient exerts a special function in formulations as well as in the corresponding tablets. It should be clear in mind that the physico-chemical properties of the co-processed excipient is, to a great extent, affected by the chemical nature of the excipients contributed to co-processing.