Hot-Melt Extrusion in the Pharmaceutical and Food Industry

Since the industrial application of hot-melt extrusion back in the 1930s, it has gained attention from the food and pharmaceutical industries and academia. It allows the unceasing manufacturing of several dosage formulations.

Lately, the pharmaceutical industry has used technology to produce new drugs and devices. This process can be applied in the production of substances for the manufacturing of substances for the production of therapeutic drug-eluting devices. It can also be used in the combination of APIs with polymers. And this enhances the bioavailability of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and can also hide the bitter taste.

At Abbvie, our service package provides terminal sterilization. This includes a hundred percent vial visual inspection with the use of labeling and packaging, polarized light, and batch certification. 

Hot-Melt Extrusion in the Pharmaceutical Industry

In the pharmaceutical industry, proprietary hot-melt extrusion has gained popularity due to the many advantages it offers compared to traditional manufacturing methods. It also provides an effective manufacturing process that improves the quality of products. In the development of drugs, the primary use of this technique is the molecular dispersion of APIs into polymer matrices to form solid solutions.

Subsequently, this method has been used for various applications, including improving the bioavailability of water-insoluble medicines by masking the taste of bitter APIs, controlling drug release, creating thin films, and manufacturing a solid solution.

The bioavailability of APIs is dependent on their solubility in water, as making poorly soluble drugs more soluble presents a great challenge in the development of drugs.  The technique presently used in drug discovery produces large molecules having high lipophilicity. Less than ten percent of candidate drugs produced are highly permeable and soluble. Up to forty percent of drugs on the drug list of the World Health Organization have poor lipophilicity and solubility.

Hot-Melt Extrusion in the Food Industry

In the food industry, hme services is a food processing technology that entails kneading, cooking, mixing, and shaping mixed ingredients as they are passed through an opening. This opening is called a die that has been designed for food items. Reduced contamination with inactive enzymes and microorganisms are the results of the high-temperature process.

This operation involves the supply of ingredients to the extruder barrel, which is transported by the screws. As it moves further along the barrel, the presence of tinier flights constrains the volume and causes the food to become more resistant to movement.

The above process results in the area between the flights to become compressed and the barrel becoming full. The screw kneads it into a semi-solid mass as the food moves along the barrel.

After that, the food moves along to a part of the barrel where the flights are reduced, and the pressure is increased as the food is forced through one or more dies at the end of the barrel. As the food comes out from the discharge end, it enlarges to adopt the finishing shape and then cools because any motion would form steam.