Impact of Tablet Solid Fraction On Disintegration Rate

The absorption rate or extent of absorption of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in patients can be significantly affected by the time required for a tablet to mechanically disintegrate in the stomach. Depending upon the dosage form, tablet disintegration times can be designed to range from tens of seconds for orally disintegrating tablets to several hours for extended release tablets. Tablet composition is critical to controlling the disintegration rate. However, even for a fixed composition, the disintegration rate can be significantly impacted by the size and porosity of the tablet. In this work, a mathematical model is derived to relate tablet disintegration time to tablet thickness and porosity. Experimental data are queried from electronic lab notebooks using proprietary internal software and used to assess the validity of the disintegration rate model. Tablet compaction profiles are analyzed and results are presented from over 400 batches of tablets.