Tuning of Paroxetine 3D-Printable Formulations for Fused Deposition Modelling

This work reports the preliminary development of paroxetine-containing formulations amenable to hot-melt extrusion coupled to fused deposition modelling-based 3D printing. Polymeric matrices were used alone, or added with processing enhancers (e.g., plasticizer and filler). The polymeric formulation containing paroxetine (30% w/w), hydroxypropylcellulose (54% w/w) and excipients (16% w/w of dicalcium dihydrate phosphate, magnesium stearate and triethylcitrate; 10:1:5 ratio) exhibited the most suitable behaviour to be extruded and 3D printed, proving that adjuvants are critical to ensure processing of the formulations.

1. Introduction
Three-dimensional printing (3DP) has been the subject of an exponential interest in pharmacy by overcoming challenges of traditional manufacturing processes and allowing the production of patient-centric dosage forms [1]. Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), the most widely used 3DP technique, requires the production of a drug-containing thermoplastic polymeric filament, obtained previously by hot-melt extrusion (HME), which is then melted and continuously deposited on a surface, layer by layer, building the 3D-printed dosage form [2].
The successful coupling of these two technologies depends on the concurrent extrudability of the raw materials and the printability of the filaments (FIL) obtained by HME, properties which are influenced by mechanical, rheological and thermal properties of materials [3]. Based on the selection of formulation and processing conditions, this work reports the preliminary development of 3D-printable formulations containing paroxetine (PRX) for HME coupled to FDM 3DP.

2. Materials and Methods
PRX (Lusifar, Lisbon, Portugal) was selected as a model drug; methylcellulose (MC) and hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC; HPCTM LF and HPCTM GF Pharm, Ashland Inc., Schaffhausen, Switzerland) and Soluplus® (SLP; Polyvinyl caprolactam-polyvinyl acetate-polyethylene glycol graft co-polymer, BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany) were used as matrix-forming polymers. Dicalcium dihydrate phosphate (CaP) (Budenheim, Budenheim, Germany), magnesium stearate (MgSt) (Roic Pharma, Barcelona, Spain) and triethylcitrate (TEC) (Sigma Aldrich, Darmstadt, Germany) were used as adjuvants

Download the full article here: Tuning of Paroxetine 3D-Printable Formulations for Fused Deposition Modelling

or continue reading here: Figueiredo, S.; Pinto, J.F.; Carvalho, F.G.; Fernandes, A.I. Tuning of Paroxetine 3D-Printable Formulations for Fused Deposition Modelling. Med. Sci. Forum 2021, 5, 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/msf2021005017