Milk Oral Lyophilizates with Loratadine: Screening for New Excipients for Pediatric Use

Human milk improves the oral bioavailability of the poorly water-soluble drug clofazimine

Clofazimine is an emerging drug for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis in infants. As a poorly water-soluble drug, the formulation of clofazimine in age-appropriate vehicles is challenging and often results in the use of off-label formulations. Milk-based vehicles such as human milk and bovine milk have been investigated as age-appropriate formulations and shown to increase the solubilisation of poorly water-soluble drugs via enhanced solubility in lipid digestion products in vitro. We hypothesised that administration of clofazimine within a milk-based vehicle would enhance bioavailability for infant patients. Towards this objective, suspensions of clofazimine in human and bovine milk were orally administered separately to piglets and rats and the subsequent plasma concentrations were compared to those after administration of an aqueous drug suspension. Initial investigations with a rodent model showed a significant increase (258%) in the oral bioavailability of clofazimine when administered with human milk. Similarly, the oral bioavailability of clofazimine was significantly higher when administered in both human (154%) and bovine milk (175%) using a neonatal piglet model, suggesting comparable enhancement in oral bioavailability could be achieved with human or bovine milk. These findings demonstrate the potential of human milk in particular to provide an effective administration vehicle for clofazimine administration to infants without the need for additional excipients.

Evaluation of different techniques for wet granulation and pelletization processes using milk as innovative pharmaceutical excipient for pediatric use

The present study focused on the use of milk as a novel excipient for the manufacture of pharmaceutical dosage forms specifically designed for the pediatric population. Dairy milks with different fat contents were studied to deliver paracetamol orally. The World Health Organization included milk in the list of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) substances, which together with its taste-masking ability and solubility solving properties, makes it a good candidate as an excipient in formulations containing paracetamol for pediatrics. The influence of the fat content in the milk, the fraction of paracetamol, the type of diluent and drying temperature (considered independent variables) were systematically investigated using a Design of Experiments (DoE) approach for the preparation of granules for oral administration, by wet agglomeration using different processing techniques, enabled the construction of mathematical models reflecting the correlation between the variables. Four different techniques were evaluated: wet granulation by low shear mixer, wet granulation by high shear mixer, wet granulation by fluidized bed, and extrusion and spheronization. The granules and pellets obtained were characterized for size, and size distribution of agglomerates, and complete release of the drug (dependent variables), according to the European Pharmacopoeia. The fraction of fat content in the milk promoted an increase on the dissolution rate of paracetamol. The key finding of the first two process techniques was a migration of paracetamol from powdered agglomerates towards the larger particles, probably due to friction and attrition events, which created a fraction of smaller size granules due to the fragmentation and loss of powder from the larger granules. The study has confirmed the potential of milk to be a novel and efficient excipient that can be used as a liquid binder in various agglomeration techniques to deliver drugs orally.

Development of Co-Amorphous Loratadine–Citric Acid Orodispersible Drug Formulations

This study aimed at the preparation and characterization of co-amorphous loratadine–citric acid orally disintegrating dosage forms (ODx). A co-amorphous loratadine–citric acid was prepared by solvent evaporation method in three different molecular ratios. DSC, FTIR, and dissolution studies have been conducted for the binary system. The co-amorphous system was used to obtain oral lyophilizates and orally disintegrating tablets by direct compression. Diameter, thickness, hardness, disintegration time, uniformity of mass, and dissolution was determined for the dosage forms. DSC curves showed a lack of sharp endothermic peaks for the binary systems. FTIR spectra presented a hypsochromic modification of the characteristic peaks. Dissolution studies indicated a five-fold increase in the dissolved amount compared to pure loratadine in water. Disintegration times of direct compression ODx varied in the range of 34–41 s and for freeze-dried ODx in the range of 8–9 s. Friability was under 1% in all cases. The dissolution of loratadine in buffer solution at pH = 1 was almost complete. In conclusion binary systems of loratadine and citric acid enhance solubility and combined with the orally disintegrating pharmaceutical form also increase patient compliance.