Improving the processability of pharmaceutical powders using atomic layer coating

Abstract

Functional coatings on Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) are used in the pharmaceutical industry to enhance mechanical strength, enable controlled release, taste masking, reduce formulation complexity and/or to improve drug product stability. Current API coating technologies have many challenges related to coating uniformity and defects, leading to variations in drug performance. This paper discusses using an ultra-thin API coating technology adapted from the semiconductor industry that can address many of the shortcomings of current coating technologies commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry. We show that this technique can achieve uniform and conformal nano-coating on multiple APIs without impacting their specific surface area and particle size distribution. We demonstrate the processability enhancements achieved using these coatings. The improvement in the processability of coated API was compared against uncoated API in commercially relevant unit operations used in the pharmaceutical industry, such as a loss in weight screw feeder and rotary tablet press.