Whether pharmaceutical, nutraceutical or confectionery, tablet sticking and picking problems are ubiquitous in the tablet manufacturing industry. Often, in the regulated world of drug-product manufacturing, there is a sense of urgency surrounding the development of new molecule offerings. This urgency can, however, result in hasty decisions being made to enter clinical trials or submit a formulation for regulatory approval, which ultimately results in unanticipated compression scale-up problems. The design process for an oral solid dosage form often overlooks some of the seemingly minor details of tablet design. This can result in tablet defects as the manufacturing process scales-up from clinical to full patient-population supply.
The requirements of a pharmaceutical company’s marketing department for certain tablet shapes and logos to enhance brand recognition are a source of design constraints, often resulting in post-approval manufacturing complications. Compression tooling manufacturers can often identify potential sticking and picking issues before tablet and tooling designs have been finalised, reducing the challenge shared by the tablet manufacturer and the tooling vendor.
Sticking and picking issues generally arise from either formulation or tablet design inadequacies. Both emerge because of the differences in physical properties of the formulation excipients and drug substance. The process of blending the formulation components results in a powder that will either consolidate and compress, or not. As the failure to compress into a tablet is a separate issue, we will only consider powders that will actually compress.
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