Mathematical Optimization Techniques in Drug Product Design and Process Analysis

Abstract

Optimization techniques represent analytical tools available to the researcher in his search for the best possible solution to a particular problem. Methodologies have been developed for structuring typical pharmaceutical development problems into a framework whereby sophisticated mathematical techniques can be employed to arrive at an optimal solution. Pharmaceutical product and process design problems were structured as constrained optimization problems and subsequently solved by the Lagrangian method of optimization. This optimization method was employed to generate optimal formulations in typical tablet design problems and to locate optimizing levels of processing variables in a typical encapsulation design problem.