This talk will present an overview of recent advances in microfluidics-based manufacturing processes for the manufacture of solid drug products with unprecedented multi-scale control over their physical and chemical properties. We will first discuss microfluidics-based methods that allow for crystallization and formulation of drug substances into engineered powders in a single processing step – an area first explored and developed in collaboration with Prof. T. Alan Hatton in the 2010s [1, 2]. These methods couple the usage of microfluidics for emulsion generation and evaporative or anti-solvent crystallization where, by tuning process parameters (such as droplet sizes and compositions, solvent removal rates, etc.), it is possible to formulate a wide range of hydrophilic and hydrophobic model and commercial drugs into monodisperse neat or co-processed spherical microparticles. We will also discuss complementary methods involving the microfluidic fabrication of hydrogel particle templates that are subsequently loaded with drug and subject to evaporative/anti-solvent crystallization to form spherical drug-loaded particles, with a highlight on work done in collaboration with Prof. Hatton [3]. Finally, we will briefly showcase recent advances in the scalable manufacture of engineered powders and their direct compaction into tablets with remarkably enhanced mechanical properties.
References
Toldy, A. I. et al., Crystal Growth and Design, 12, 3977-3982 (2012).
Toldy, A. I., et al., Crystal Growth and Design, 14, 3485 - 3492 (2014).
Gu, T. et al., Advanced Healthcare Materials 7, 1700797 (2018).
