Continuous synthesis of nano-drug particles by antisolvent crystallization using a porous hollow-fiber membrane module

This study reports an experimental and numerical approach to obtain a further understanding of the fundamental principles of antisolvent crystallization using a porous hollow fiber membrane. This includes producing a particle size-controlled drug nanosuspension experimentally using a commercial microfiltration (MF) pencil scale module, and a numerical analysis of mixing behavior using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. From the results obtained, a nanosuspension of a model drug, Indomethacin, with particles of average diameter 0.320 µm was prepared. Furthermore, this nanosuspension has higher stability and a much lower tendency to agglomerate as compared to simple mixing of the anti-solvent and drug solution. Results from the numerical simulation showed that micromixing is possible using the porous hollow fiber membrane even under the most compromising conditions. Graphical abstract
Source: International Journal of Pharmaceutics - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research