Integrating Elastic Tensor and PC-SAFT Modeling with Systems-Based Pharma 4.0 Simulation, to Predict Process Operations and Product Specifications of Ternary Nanocrystalline Suspensions

Abstract

Comminution of BCS II APIs below the 1 μm threshold followed by solidification of the obtained nanosuspensions improves their dissolution properties. The breakage process reveals new crystal faces, thus creating altered crystal habits of improved wettability, facilitated by the adsorption of stabilizing polymers. However, process-induced transformations remain unpredictable, mirroring the current limitations of our atomistic level of understanding. Moreover, conventional equations of estimating dissolution, such as Noyes–Whitney and Nernst–Brunner, are not suitable to quantify the solubility enhancement due to the nanoparticle formation; hence, neither the complex stabilizer contribution nor the adsorption influence on the interfacial tension occurring between the water and APIs is accounted for. For such ternary mixtures, no numeric method exists to correlate the mechanical properties with the interfacial energy, capable of informing the key process parameters and the thermodynamic stability assessment of nanosuspensions. In this work, an elastic tensor analysis was performed to quantify the API stability during process implementation. Moreover, a novel thermodynamic model, described by the stabilizer-coated nanoparticle Gibbs energy anisotropic minimization, was structured to predict the material’s system solubility quantified by the application of PC-SAFT modeling. Comprehensively merging elastic tensor and PC-SAFT analysis into the systems-based Pharma 4.0 algorithm provided a validated, multi-level, built-in method capable of predicting the critical material quality attributes and corresponding key process parameters.

Keywords

• nanosuspensions
• elastic tensor analysis
• process and material design space
• PC-SAFT
• spray drying
• stabilizer selection