Amorphous solid dispersion dry powder for pulmonary drug delivery: Advantages and challenges

Amorphous solid dispersion (ASD) is commonly used in pharmaceutical industry. It has been mainly employed to enhance the oral bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs that belong to class II and IV of the biopharmaceutical classification system but has showed promise in other areas of pharmaceutical research. In this review, the potential and limitations of ASD dry powder for inhalation are discussed. ASD powder for inhalation (ASD-IP) is commonly prepared by spray drying technique. The physicochemical characteristics of ASD-IP could be tailored to achieve effective lung deposition. ASD-IP could also attain rapid dissolution behavior to achieve therapeutically effective concentration either locally or systemically before particle clearance in the lung. The key challenges of using ASD powder for inhalation include the possible chemical and/or physical instability of the amorphous phase during manufacturing and in vivo, and the moisture and temperature sensitivity of ASD-IP that affects its storage stability.

Highlights

• Brittle matrix ASD-IP lung deposition is independent on the dry powder inhaler design.

• ASD-IP achieves long lung residence time based on its physical characteristics.

• ASD-IP can achieve both systemic and local drug delivery to the lung.

• Marketing is challenged by the physical instability and the few approved excipients.

• The use of an excipient and proper packaging and storage enhance ASD-IP stability.

See the article

Author links open overlay panelKhaled AboulFotouh, Yi Zhang, Mohammed Maniruzzaman, Robert O.Williams III, Zhengrong Cui
International Journal of Pharmaceutics
Volume 587, 25 September 2020, 119711
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119711

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