Easy cleaning of hot melt extrusion

More than half of New Chemical Entities (NCEs), which were developed recently, tend to show high crystallinity and poor solubility in water. Solid dispersion is a technique to improve the solubility and bioavailability of these NCEs. Hot-melt extrusion (HME) is one of the main methods to prepare solid dispersions.

Enteric Polymers (e.g. AQOAT®, EUDRAGIT®, Kollicoat® etc.), which are widely used as an enteric coating agent, are useful carriers for solid dispersions and applicable for HME. However, these polymers are insoluble in water and users
often have difficulties cleaning their extruder after processing.

A purge compound for hot melt extrusion can terminate difficulties to clean the extruder after processing. There are special water-soluble purge compounds with a micro-cleansing effect available. By using such cleaners the difficulties of screw cleaning after the HME process can be minimized. For example, the HME Cleaner Plus (GMP) offers effective cleaning in pharma quality due to its high cleaning power and low residues.