French technology paves new ways for pharmaceutical physics
Uppsala University's Pharmaceutical physics research team has, in collaboration with French company MEDELPHARM, installed compaction simulator STYL'One Nano to provide insights into the possibility to compress powders into qualitative tablets. "The ability to simulate a tableting process gives us completely new possibilities," states Professor Göran Frenning.
Tableting - to compress powders into a solid form - is a challenging yet central step in the development of new drugs for oral delivery. That the process often includes particles of varying size, shape and porosity makes characterization difficult, and at Uppsala University, researchers in Pharmaceutical physics are currently developing a method to predict the tablet-forming abilities of powders. A work that recently took an important step forward via the installation of a new tablet press in the laboratory at Uppsala’s Biomedical Center.
Göran Frenning, Faculty of Pharmacy
“This machine, a STYL'One Nano, fits on a table and enables us to just as quick as easy simulate a tableting process, which gives us completely new possibilities. Instead of being limited to qualified assumptions and seeking information online, we can now conduct physical experiments that provide both faster and more accurate answers, states Göran Frenning, Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences.
STYL'One Nano allows the team to, with small amounts of sample material, characterize active pharmaceutical ingredients, assess their material properties and develop and validate analytical methods. The technology includes a software that both collects generated data and converts it into a diversity of relevant parameters. The machine was developed by French company MEDELPHARM, which also provided delivery, installation and training.
Ann-Sofie Persson, Faculty of Pharmacy
“The device is user-friendly throughout and has already proven to be an important addition to our work in measuring mechanical properties of powders and to control their forces. To have direct access to a STYL'One Nano for two years and free of charge is incredibly valuable, and we are very grateful to MEDELPHARM for making this possible, while we at the same time see it as a recognition of our scientific work, says Ann-Sofie Persson, Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences.
“We are proud to support Uppsala University through this two-year loan and believe in the strong potential of their project with a long-term goal to enable optimal use of analytical powder compression during preformulation or the early formulation phase. In constructing a complete scheme for characterization of drugs during early formulation development, it could serve as a valuable tool for the pharmaceutical industry, offering key insights into compression properties to help ensure the development of high-quality tablets," writes MEDELPHARM in a statement.
At Uppsala’s Biomedical Center, the STYL'One Nano is already used in daily operations. The ambition is to as soon as possible also integrate it into the Faculty of Pharmacy's first and second cycle programmes, and in the fall of 2026 start to arrange seminars and workshops that, in collaboration with MEDELPHARM, will highlight both the technology and the results it generates.
Facts
- Uppsala University's research group in Pharmaceutical physics studies the design, manufacturing and performance of drug-delivery system.
- The team conducts methodological and basic mechanistic research that contributes to the development of effective, patient oriented and more cost-effective drugs.
- In the project Formulation of solid oral dosage forms, the team determines compression parameters to characterize particle properties and predict tablet-forming abilities.
Contact
Göran Frenning, Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences
Goran.Frenning@uu.se
Ann-Sofie Persson, Associate Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences
Ann-Sofie.Persson@uu.se
Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Magnus Alsne