Quantitative analysis of drug tablet aging by fast hyper-spectral stimulated Raman scattering microscopy

Pharmaceutical development of solid-state formulations requires testing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and excipients for uniformity and stability. Solid-state properties such as component distribution and grain size are crucial factors that influence the dissolution profile, which greatly affect drug efficacy and toxicity, and can only be analyzed spatially by chemical imaging (CI) techniques. Current CI techniques such as near infrared microscopy and confocal Raman spectroscopy are capable of high chemical and spatial resolution but cannot achieve the measurement speeds necessary for integration into the pharmaceutical production and quality assurance processes. To fill this gap, we demonstrate fast chemical imaging by epi-detected sparse spectral sampling stimulated Raman scattering to quantify API and excipient degradation and distribution. Pharmaceutical development of drug tablets requires ensuring chemical uniformity and stability. S4RS imaging of drug tablets can quantify chemical degradation and distribution at a faster speed and higher resolution compared to existing technologies.

Automated summary

Pharmaceutical development of solid-state formulations requires chemical imaging techniques to analyze the solid-state properties for ensuring drug efficacy and stability. Current chemical imaging techniques have high chemical and spatial resolution but lack the necessary measurement speed for pharmaceutical production and quality assurance processes. To address this issue, fast chemical imaging using stimulated Raman scattering can quantitatively analyze the degradation and distribution of drugs at a faster speed and higher resolution.