INJECTION MOLDING/MICROMOLDING APPLICATIONS TO DRUG DELIVERY

In the present work the application potential of injection molding (IM) and micromolding (µIM) for the manufacturing of drug products was investigated. These techniques are largely employed in the plastics industry to process thermoplastic polymers into objects with different size, shape and possibly many details, and they could offer several advantages in the pharmaceutical area, mainly related to versatility, patentability, scalability and production costs (continuous manufacturing). Processes and equipment generally employed as well as current pharmaceutical applications already proposed in the literature were preliminarily reviewed. Drug delivery systems (DDSs) in the form of gastro-resistant containers based on HPMCAS were afterwards designed and manufactured by µIM. Notably, such DDSs represent a step forward in the field as they may provide a ready-to-use alternative to enteric-coated dosage forms. Moreover, the feasibility by hot-processing techniques (hot melt extrusion and IM) of prolonged-release hydrophilic matrices and immediate release tablets was demonstrated, which could help promoting the use of continuous manufacturing in the pharmaceutical production areas.