Tablet imaging

A recent  US Food and Drug Administration study has shown that Cambridge-based TeraView's Terahertz imaging system can be used in conjunction with wet dissolution testing to accelerate the product development time of tablets and capsules.

The study focussed on the drug Asacol, a treatment for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, which uses coatings that breakdown and release the drug in the lower intestinal tract. Release of the drug in the stomach and upper small intestine is undesirable, as this will lead to premature absorption and consequent drug wastage as well as possible side effects.

The tablets were found to dissolve in an erratic fashion during conventional wet dissolution measurements. TeraView’s terahertz imaging was used alongside dissolution to accurately map the coating thickness, and the mean dissolution times were found to correlate with the average tablet coating thickness, suggesting that the coating thickness played a significant role in product design and performance.