Comparison of bracketing and matrixing designs for a two-year stability study

Compatibility of Personalized Formulations in Cleoderm™, A Skin Rebalancing Cream Base for Oily and Sensitive Skin

Inflammatory skin conditions are prevalent in the general population and are a source of much concern for those who suffer from them. Acne is an extremely common condition and can significantly impact the quality of life of affected patients. Rosacea is another common dermatological disorder that often affects the face and can present with flushing, irritated skin, and pimples. In addition to being key for acne and rosacea, inflammation can also play a role in prematurely aging skin and contributes to the formation of wrinkles. Given the prevalence and patient impact of dermatological conditions on the face, such as those previously described, there is a demand for personalized medicines to manage these conditions when commercially available options are unsuitable, unavailable, or insufficient to fully resolve the condition. When designing an appropriate personalized therapy for a patient, both the vehicle and the active pharmaceutical ingredient choices are key to the success of the treatment. Cleoderm™ is a topical cream designed for use as a vehicle for the preparation of dermatological treatments by compounding pharmacies. Its ingredient profile was specifically curated to be gentle on the skin, allowing its use as a vehicle for compounded preparations that may be applied to sensitive and affected skin. In this bracketed study, benzoyl peroxide, cyproterone acetate, estriol, metronidazole, niacinamide, progesterone, retinoic acid, spironolactone, and tranexamic acid were selected, due to their known applications for dermatological skin conditions. To evaluate the compatibility and stability of Cleoderm™ in these formulations, high-performance liquid chromatography, followed by antimicrobial effectiveness testing, were performed for 180 days. For most formulations, a beyond-use date of 180 days was observed when stored at room temperature, except for retinoic acid, which had a beyond-use date of 30 days. Through the outcomes of this study, we concluded that Cleoderm™ presents increased convenience for both the compounding pharmacist and the patient, suggesting that it is an adequate candidate vehicle for compounding different dermatological formulations with adequate stability, presenting itself as a good alternative to commercially available treatments that cannot be personalized.

Optimal Designs in Stability Studies

New optimality criteria for stability studies are proposed, and the related optimal designs are investigated. For each optimality criterion, optimal designs are identified within a class of competing designs. The property of the optimal designs for detecting slope differences is discussed.

Comparing distributions of shelf lives for drug products with two components under different designs

To reduce the cost of stability testing in drug research and development, both bracketing and matrixing designs are recommended in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) guidelines for drug products with a single active ingredient (component). When the drug product contains multiple active components, the naïve approach is to take the minimum of shelf lives obtained from individual components as the labeled shelf life. The purpose of this article is to compare the distributions of the shelf life obtained as the minimum shelf life of two components for full FDA's sampling plan, matrixing, and bracketing designs. The results were obtained based on theoretical considerations and simulation studies.

Use of a portable real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay for rapid detection of foot-and-mouth disease virus

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate a portable real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay designed to detect all 7 viral serotypes of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV).

DESIGN

Laboratory and animal studies.

STUDY POPULATION

Viruses grown in tissue culture and animals experimentally infected with FMDV.

PROCEDURE

1 steer, pig, and sheep were infected with serotype O FMDV. Twenty-four hours later, animals were placed in separate rooms that contained 4 FMDV-free, healthy animals of the same species. Oral and nasal swab specimens, oropharyngeal specimens obtained with a probang, and blood samples were obtained at frequent intervals, and animals were observed for fever and clinical signs of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Samples from animals and tissue cultures were assayed for infectious virus and viral RNA.

RESULTS

The assay detected viral RNA representing all 7 FMDV serotypes grown in tissue culture but did not amplify a panel of selected viruses that included those that cause vesicular diseases similar to FMD; thus, the assay had a specificity of 100%, depending on the panel selected. The assay also met or exceeded sensitivity of viral culture on samples from experimentally infected animals. In many instances, the assay detected viral RNA in the mouth and nose 24 to 96 hours before the onset of clinical disease.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

The assay reagents are produced in a vitrified form, which permits storage and transportation at ambient temperatures. The test can be performed in 2 hours or less on a portable instrument, thus providing a rapid, portable, sensitive, and specific method for detection of FMDV.