Approximately 50% - 90% of existing and potential new drugs are poorly soluble. It’s a statistic with dramatic implications, since poor solubility inhibits the absorption of a drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), which renders less beneficial effects for the patients who wish to use them and less profitable results for the companies that try to sell them. Recent advancements in pharmaceutical development processes, however, indicate that using high pressure homogenizers for nanomilling dramatically improves the bioavailability of active drug ingredients, thus benefiting individuals and drug companies alike. Take a look:
What is Nanomilling for Bioavailability?
Drugs work better when they have a large surface area available for solvation. Think about a sugar cube dissolving in a cup of tea: a crushed cube will diffuse throughout the cup quicker than a lump. In much the same way, a drug whose active particles have been reduced to their smallest uniform size will disperse throughout the body better than a drug with larger particles.
Nanomilling, then, is the process by which an API is reduced to particles less than 1000 nm in size. It’s also called wet media milling, and can be effectuated via several different techniques, but we believe high pressure homogenizers (HPHs) offer the most advantages when nanomillling for bioavailability. Here’s why:
High Pressure Homogenizers Minimize Contamination
High pressure homogenizers apply constant pressure to a product to break it into uniformly-size pieces. Other types of particle size reducers (such as bead mills, for example) use an actual grinding material (i.e., beads) to the facilitate particle reduction, agitating this material along with the product so that the product itself breaks apart. We believe HPHs, particularly those with Pion's proprietary pressurized pumping system, are far superior to bead mills and other wet media milling technologies specifically because they don’t introduce any foreign materials into the particle reduction process — just high pressure and the active pharmaceutical ingredient — thus, posing little to no risk for contamination.
High Pressure Homogenizers are Faster
High pressure homogenizers supply a very intense and focused energy that enables quicker particle reduction than other processing methods. They are also highly efficient, enabling optimal particle size in the fewest passes, saving valuable production time and getting drugs — that actually work! — more quickly into the hands of the patients who need them!
High Pressure Homogenizers Allow for Targeted Particle Reduction
Because Pion's BEE HPHs utilize a modular system that combines pressure, shear, cavitation and impact, many different configurations can be set up, each according to the specification of the product at hand. This means operators can customize their processes so that the exact particle size needed is produced during each run.
High Pressure Homogenizers Are Consistent and Versatile
The unique combination of forces used in BEE International high-pressure homogenizers produces a tighter, more uniform distribution of particles and can be used for both inline and batch processing.
High Pressure Homogenizers Yield Scalable Results
The most beneficial type of processing equipment allows operators the ability to progress from the laboratory to production with no loss of reliability or efficacy. High pressure homogenizers allow customization of the particle size reduction process according to product volume so that the chemical integrity of active ingredient(s) is always the same.
High Pressure Homogenizers Are Easy to Clean
Finally, unlike bead mills and other types of homogenizers, high pressure homogenizers do not require manual cleaning. Inline cleaning processes permit routine (and nearly) hands-free maintenance that is not available with other nanomilling options.
Want to Learn More?
Utilizing high pressure homogenizers for nanomilling for bioavailability enhancement allows companies to produce more effective drugs and people the opportunity to take them. To learn more about what makes Pion's BEE brand high-pressure homogenizers the superior choice when nanomilling for bioavailability enhancement, please contact our team today.
