By Prof. Changquan Calvin Sun, Ph.D.
Professor, University of Minnesota

The development of a quality tablet product requires overcoming deficiencies in pharmaceutical properties of tablets to meet several performance standards. Punch sticking during tablet manufacturing is a longstanding common problem facing the pharmaceutical industry. However, this problem has only been empirically addressed with varying results because of its complexity, where several factors can affect the severity of punch sticking propensity. This talk will begin by describing a force based punch sticking model. Then, examples of mitigating punch sticking propensity of APIs are given. This work exemplifies one application of crystal engineering in solving pharmaceutical problems.