Journal of pharmaceutical sciences
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It is anticipated that effective vaccines will enable the resumption of social and economic normalcy. Current calls for masking, social distancing and other restrictive measures for the public-good are difficult to enforce and are unstainable. As ~2-4% of the 50 million SARS-CoV2-infected have succumbed to Covid-19, the US department of Health and Human Services has organized a public-private partnership called Operation Warp Speed (OWS) to develop, produce and deliver 300 million doses of safe and effective vaccines with a January 2021 target. ⋯ It is enabled by new gene and recombinant pharmaceutical platform technologies that are accelerating the clinical study timeline from ~10 to less than 1 year. It is anticipated that one or more of the 6 candidates under the OWS initiative will be safe, effective and provide a sustained immune response to prevent infection and disease progression. This way, social and economic activities could return to normalcy.
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Oral pediatric formulations are either ready-to-use or require manipulation and multiuse or single-use. Strong encouragement for preservative-free pediatric formulations has resulted in fewer multiuse solutions or suspensions in favor of single-use solid oral dosage forms. This updated review covering new pediatric formulations marketed in the United States of America, Europe, and Japan spanning the years 2007 to mid-2018 identified 16 types of pediatric oral formulations of which 7 are ready-to-use and 9 require manipulation, and 51 total new pediatric oral formulations of which 21 are ready-to-use and 30 require manipulation. ⋯ Formulations requiring manipulation include sprinkle capsule, powder for oral solution, powder for oral suspension, granules for oral suspension, oral powder, oral granules, tablet, dispersible tablet, dispersible scored tablet, tablet for oral suspension, and mini-tablets (oral granules). Significant advances in packaging technology include filling mini-tablets, granules, or powders into sachets, stick packets, blisters, and 2-piece capsules. The future of pediatric oral formulations will increasingly be with user-friendly, preservative-free, taste-masked formulations including multiparticulate single-use solid dosage forms including mini-tablets, orally disintegrating tablets, and sprinkle capsules with or without a specialized package configuration.
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Application of additive manufacturing techniques (3D printing) for mass-customized products has boomed in the recent years. In pharmaceutical industry and research, the interest has grown particularly with the future scenario of more personalized medicinal products. Understanding a broad range of material properties and process behavior of the drug-excipient combinations is necessary for successful 3D printing of dosage forms. ⋯ A case study of a model oral dosage form from custom-prepared indomethacin-polycaprolactone feedstock filament was used as an example in the pharmaceutical context. The printability was assessed in the different process steps: preparation of customized filaments for FDM, filament feeding, deposition, and solidification. These were linked with the rheological, thermal, and mechanical properties and their characterization, relevant for understanding the printability of drug products by FDM.
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Second-degree burn injury is the most common type of burn injury, which usually takes 2-3 weeks for complete healing. However, such patients suffer with intense pain associated with development of hyperalgesia and allodynia. Here, we prepare a silver clay patch using montmorillonite clay, betaine, and silver nitrate. ⋯ Our results show that application of fentanyl-loaded dermal clay (FLDC) dressings for 3 h showed significant increase of paw withdrawal latency (p <0.001) against hyperalgesia starting from 30 min after removal of patch to up to 6 h. Similarly, the FLDC dressings also potentiated the paw withdrawal threshold for up to 4 h after application (p <0.001). From these studies, we can conclude that FLDC dressings are ideal topical formulations for better management of pain in second-degree burns.
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In this study, we prepared a series of silver sulfadiazine (AgSD)-loaded polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels via electron beam (e-beam) irradiation. Our objective was to explore the influence of e-beam irradiation on the chemical structure and crystallinity of AgSD and the antibacterial properties of AgSD/PVA hydrogels. Prior to irradiation, we mixed AgSD in PVA solution in 2 forms, either suspended in water (WS) or dissolved in ammonia solution (AS). ⋯ Moreover, the antibacterial activity of the AgSD/PVA-WS hydrogels was stronger than that of AgSD/PVA-AS. Accordingly, the cell cytotoxicity of the AgSD/PVA-WS hydrogels was higher than that of AgSD/PVA-AS. Our study results reveal that e-beam irradiation of PVA solution with dispersed AgSD is a simple and efficient way to prepare AgSD/PVA hydrogels, which might be an ideal antibacterial wound dressing.