Scientists were able to reduce the pills by 2.5 times without losing the dosage of the drug

Engineers have developed a new technology for packaging hydrophobic drugs into tablets, which allows them to increase their concentration by 2.5 times.

Nobody likes swallowing big pillsentirely, and some people simply cannot do this, which reduces the effectiveness of their action. Now researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to reduce the size of the tablet by almost 2.5 times by placing a standard volume of the drug in it. It is specially designed for drugs with water-insoluble activecomponents, which now account for about 60% of all drugs.

When creating such tablets at the present timethe active substances are crushed to the size of nanocrystals so that the human body can better absorb them, and then they are mixed with excipients to stabilize and control the release. However, the grinding process is time-consuming and energy-intensive and can change the properties of the active ingredient.

The MIT team took a different path and dissolvedthe active ingredient in a cholesterol drug (fenofibrate) in an oil called anisole. The researchers then mixed this mixture with the popular excipient methylcellulose dissolved in water. Then the resulting nanoemulsion was dipped dropwise into hot water, as a result of which they instantly solidified and turned into a gel.

After drying and shaping, scientists obtained tablets withfenofibrate nanocrystals evenly distributed in the methylcellulose matrix. The analysis showed that the active component accounts for 60% of their mass, which is significantly higher than the figure for currently produced drugs, equal to about 25%. This allows the size of the tablet to be reduced while maintaining the dosage.

We also previously reported on the development of technology that enables the delivery of drugs against the bloodstream.

</p>