EVALUATION OF AN ADEQUATE METHOD OF ESTIMATING FLOWABILITY ACCORDING TO POWDER CHARACTERISTICS

An evaluation of different methods of investigating the flow propertie s of bulk solids has been carried out on two new direct compression ex cipients, Ludipress(R) and Maltrin(R) M150, in order to establish a be tter validation of the study of the flowability of pharmaceutical powd ers according to their characteristics. A good correlation among all t he methods was found. Also, both excipients showed different behavior, maybe due to the stickiness of Maltrin(R) M150 and the size and shape of its particles. Finally, as far as an appropriate procedure is conc erned, the most suitable method of estimating the flowability of powde rs is based on the flow rate system design, however, if it does not fl ow the shear cell method provides useful information about the reasons why this is so.