title: Functionalized calcium carbonate as a novel pharmaceutical excipient for the preparation of orally dispersible tablets.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To overcome the limitation of insufficient hardness during the production of rapidly disintegrating orally dispersible tablets (ODTs). Furthermore, we investigated the properties and usefulness of functionalized calcium carbonate (FCC) as a new pharmaceutical excipient for the production of ODTs.
  
  
  METHODS
  A highly sensitive tensiometer-based method was developed to measure kinetics of weight loss during tablet disintegration. With this method we were able to determine the residence time of tablets placed on a basket immersed into a test medium. The shapes of tensiometer plots allowed us to categorize substances into four different types of disintegration.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At the same volume and hardness, the tablet formulations with FCC showed a significantly higher porosity (over 60%) than all other formulations. Residence time depended mainly on the tablet composition rather than on porosity. When combined with disintegrants, FCC formulations exhibited favorable disintegration properties, comparable to those of the marketed drug risperidone oro (disintegration time ca. 10 s).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Oral dosage forms--based on the new pharmaceutical excipient FCC--can be designed to have a short disintegration time combined with good mechanical strength. Due to these properties, FCC can be used for the preparation of ODTs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Science Division of Pharmaceutical Technology, University Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 50, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stirnimann
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Di Maiuta
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Gerard
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alles
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huwyler
authors.forename: Maxim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Puchkov
mesh_terms: D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry*; D005079:Excipients / Q000737:chemistry*; D006244:Hardness; D012995:Solubility; D013607:Tablets / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005079:Excipients; D013607:Tablets; D002119:Calcium Carbonate