COMPRESSION BEHAVIOR OF ACETYLSALICYLIC-ACID PELLETS

An instrumented tablet press was used to study the compression behavio r of different acetylsalicylic acid (AAS) formulations. Formulations o f AAS crystals and uncoated AAS pellets have compression behavior simi lar to formulations of AAS pellets coated with acrylic resins (Eudragi t RS) and mixed with a 20% of microcrystalline cellulose. Formulations of AAS coated pellets without any excipient exhibited a more plastic compression behavior then the other formulations. Matrix tablets of AA S were produced by compression of formulations of AAS coated pellets w ithout any excipients. The drug release profile of the pellets before and after compression was also studied. Microcrystalline cellulose con centrations higher than 15% w/w were required to obtain tablets of coa ted pellets with drug release profiles similar to the coated pellets b efore compression. It can be concluded from the present work that comp ression data of coated particles can be useful to study the possible d amage of the film coat of the particles during tableting. Futhermore, instrumented tablet press data can be a good complement of in vitro dr ug release studies.