Drug Delivery Flashcards
(268 cards)
What are excipients in a drug?
Non- active processing materials e.g dilutents
What are the three main features for using a different solid form of the same drug?
1) Alters the bioavailability of the drug
2) Alters the stability of dosage forms (physical and chemical)
3) Important in the way the dosage forms can be processed and manufactured
What is the most common rate limiting step in absorption?
Dissolution rate
What is bioavailability?
The % of dose that enters systemic circulation
What are polymorphs and what can be their effects?
They are the same drug but different physical forms so can have different therapeutic and biological effects
How can different excipients affect the same drug?
Can have profound effects e.g. disintegrants which can cause break up of tablets into particles
What do polymorphs differ in?
1) Stability- chemical reactivity
- conversion to other forms
2) Processing- different physical forms have different flow
What is a molecule?
Entity containing a number of atoms containing covalent bonds
What is a particle?
Distinct microscopic structure, made from millions of molecules held with non- covalent bonds.
What is a powder?
Visible mass of particles
Give three features of crystalline materials:
1) Ordered arrangement
2) Distinct melting point
3) Structure has unit cell repeated in three dimensions
What is a unit cell?
Small part which can be repeated
Give three features of amorphous materials:
1) No long range order
2) Non- random local structure
3) Have a glass transition temp (Tg)
What type of drug crystals are most drugs?
Triclinic, monoclinic, orthorhombic
Does polymorphism exist in solution?
NO only in a solid
What is true about polymorph stability?
At a given temperature and pressure only one form can be stable, the one with the lowest free Gibbs energy. Others are metastable (kinetically stable)
What is a mono-tropic relationship?
The same form is stable irrespective to temperature
What is an enantiotropic relationship?
Either of the two forms may be stable depending on the temperature
Why is it difficult to tell if you have a stable polymorph?
The metastable form may take a very long time to transform to the stable form.
State and describe two ways for a crystal formation:
1) Supersaturation of solution- conc higher than equilibrium solubility
- can be induced by cooling
2) Nucleation- very small particles form around which crystals grow
- May be homogeneous, same material of crystal or
heterogeneous, foreign material before nucleation
What is a crystal habit and give two examples?
The external shape of a crystal e.g platy and acicular
What does an increase in the degree of supersaturation do to the crystal habit?
Tends to yield longer needles and thinner plates
What happens to the crystal habit and the unit cell of a crystal if the growth conditions change?
Unit cell remains the same however the crystal unit can change
What is the difference between polymorphs and habitats?
Different habitats (external) may indicate the presence of polymorphs (internal) but are different and may change independently