Chimera agglomerates for extravascular delivery of particulate drugs

The applications of the powder agglomeration technology for an extra vascular administration were studied in this PhD thesis. This technology allowed to obtain soft agglomerates that are cluster of microparticles characterized by low crushing strength. Agglomeration of fine particles improve handling of bulk powders and produce better flowability. The structure and properties of agglomerates depend on the composition of microparticles. However, the main feature of agglomerates is the capability of recovering the size of the primary particles at the administration site by use of water. These peculiarities are suitable for the administration to children and/or elder people that presented swallowing problems. In particular, it was studied a mesalazine gastroresistant multiparticulate system, where the drug was entrapped in lipidic microcapsules. Then, they were agglomerated with excipient microparticles to increase the wettability of the system. Moreover, an extemporaneous formulation composed by artemisinin beta-cyclodextrin and clindamycin agglomerates for the treatment of the malaria was studied and characterized. Finally, a formulation of sodium levothyroxine agglomerates for buccal delivery system was studied since they were able to disintegrate in a minimum volume of liquid as the saliva.