Systematical Investigation of Different Drug Nanocrystal Technologies to Produce Fast Dissolving Meloxicam Tablets.

Abstract

Three different methods, i.e., high-pressure homogenization, wet bead milling, and a combination approach of freeze-drying and high-pressure homogenization, were used to produce meloxicam nanosuspensions, respectively. Wet bead milling led to the nanosuspensions with smallest particle size (88nm) after 4h and optimal dissolution performances. Freeze-dried meloxicam powder could highly improve the size reduction efficiency compared to the unmodified drug and particle size of the freeze-dried sample could be reduced to 342nm after only one homogenization cycle at 1000bar. The polymorphism transition and change of the particle morphology after the lyophilization might be important reasons to affect the nanosizing processes. Interestingly, the tablets prepared by using nanosuspensions from homogenizer and combination process showed faster dissolution in the first 20min than the bead milling nanocrystal tablets.