Troubleshooting Tablets - Malvern's Near Infrared Chemical Imaging Supports Reverse Engineering of Pharmaceutical Tablets for Troubleshooting Product Failures
23 February 2010: Malvern, UK: Chemical imaging specialists at Malvern Instruments have recently published an application note demonstrating that by reverse engineering pharmaceutical tablets using data from the SyNIRgi near infrared chemical imaging (NIR-CI) system they could determine extensive and detailed information about the formulations and processing techniques used to create each dosage. This has valuable applications in troubleshooting product failures. The application note, entitled 'NIR chemical imaging for tablet deconstruction: A case study for solid dosage forms' can be downloaded from Malvern's extensive knowledge database at: www.malvern.com/nircitablets
While high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) can provide basic information about a product's makeup, the application of NIR-CI adds novel information relating to its manufacture. Using Malvern's ISys chemical imaging analysis software to evaluate the size, shape and proximity of chemical components, SyNIRgi's global imaging approach provides a visual representation of a product's composition and engineered structure.
SyNIRgi delivers robust automated sampling capabilities that deliver rapid data acquisition as well as advanced data analysis via an easy-to-use interface.
The NIR-CI technique demonstrated in Malvern's new application note takes advantage of both SyNIRgi hardware and ISys software's advanced features. This type of reverse engineering has demonstrated unparalleled ability to help understand product failures and can primarily be used for trouble-shooting. The wealth of chemical and physical information in a chemical image provides a fingerprint of the tablet's production properties and ultimately, its performance. It is ideal for pharmaceutical dosage analysis and enables refined quality control. www.malvern.com/nircitablets
About Malvern Instruments
Malvern Instruments provides a range of complementary materials characterization tools that deliver inter-related measurements reflecting the complexities of particulates and disperse systems, nanomaterials and macromolecules. Analytical instruments from Malvern are used in the characterization of a wide variety of materials, from industrial bulk powders to nanomaterials and delicate macromolecules. A broad portfolio of innovative technologies is combined with intelligent, user-friendly software. These systems deliver industrially relevant data enabling our customers to make the connection between micro (such as particle size) and macro (bulk) material properties (rheology) and chemical composition (chemical imaging).
Particle size, particle shape, zeta potential, molecular weight, chemical composition and rheological properties measurements are now joined by advanced chromatography solutions (GPC/SEC), extending Malvern's technologies for protein molecular weight, size and aggregation measurements, and synthetic polymer molecular weight and distribution. The company's laboratory, at-line, on-line and in-line solutions are proven in sectors as diverse as cement production and pharmaceutical drug discovery.
Headquartered in Malvern, UK, Malvern Instruments has subsidiary organizations in all major European markets, North America, China, Korea and Japan, a joint venture in India, a global distributor network and applications laboratories around the world. www.malvern.com
