Three-Dimensional Printing of PVA Capsular Devices for Applications in Compounding Pharmacy: Effect of Design Parameters on Pharmaceutical Performance

PEÑA, JUAN FRANCISCO; COTABARREN, IVANA; GALLO, LOREANA

Pharmaceutics

MDPI

Año: 2024 vol. 16

The creation of products with personalized or innovative features in the pharmaceutical sector by using innovative technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) printing is particularly noteworthy, especially in the realm of compounding pharmacies. In this work, 3D printed capsule devices (CDs) with different wall thicknesses (0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.9 mm) and sizes were designed and suc-cessfully fabricated varying printing parameters such as extrusion temperature, printing speed, material flow percent, and nozzle diameter. The physicochemical, pharmaceutical, and bio-pharmaceutical performance of these CDs was evaluated with the aim of achieving an immediate drug release profile comparable to hard gelatin capsules (HGC) for use in magistral compounding. It was observed that the disintegration time of the CDs increased with wall thickness, which correlated with a slower drug release rate. CDs with configurations presenting 0.4 mm wall thickness and sizes comparable to HGC nº 0, 1, and 2 demonstrated satis-factory weight uniformity, short disintegration times, and immediate drug release, indicating their potential as effective devices in future compounding pharmacy applications. In addition, a modified Weibull-type model was proposed that incorporates wall thickness as a new variable in predicting dissolution profiles. This model improves the process of selecting a specific wall thickness to achieve the desired dissolution rate within a specified time frame