AAPS PharmSci 360 2026: Roller-Compacted Formulations

Shubhajit Paul, senior research fellow in Boehringer Ingelheim’s Department of Material Analytical Sciences, sat down with PharmTech at AAPS PharmSci 360 in New Orleans to discuss his presentation, “Integrated Digital Design for Improved Tabletability Prediction of Roller-Compacted Formulations”. Paul says that granule tabletability can be reasonably predicted without running the roller compaction process at all. The method needs the pre-blend’s compressibility, tabletability, and compactibility (CTC) profile. Collecting that profile takes 3 to 4 grams of material compressed into standard cylindrical tablets. The goal, he explains, is to stop relying on subjective experience or on preset parameters borrowed from other formulations. Instead, the pre-blend’s mechanical properties show how much tabletability is lost at a given roll pressure. That loss in turn sets how strong the tablets made from the resulting granules can be.

A study his group published about 2 years ago on modeling solid fraction in roller compaction accounts for the effect of roll speed. It needs only 6 to 7 grams of material, pressed into rectangular “simulated ribbons,” to establish ribbon compressibility. Used together, the 2 methods should let scientists predict the solid fraction at given roller compactor settings, according to Paul. They should also predict how much tabletability that formulation will lose at those roll pressures.

The published work is based on 12 diverse formulations, including preclinical. Paul says the results suggest that granule bimodality may influence the correction factor his team introduced, which is central to the prediction. In other words, granules that are too fine or too coarse could throw it off. To test whether granule particle size really affects this factor, he proposes collecting data on more diverse formulations. This could happen through a workshop or through broader industry data sharing.

AAPS PharmSci 360 is being held in New Orleans from October 25-28.

About the Speaker

Shubhajit Paul, senior research fellow, has led Boehringer Ingelheim’s Department of Material Analytical Sciences for 8 years. His work links the properties of drug substances and excipients to drug product performance. The group develops intrinsic material properties and hybrid parameters that serve as inputs for process models.