Advances in hot-melt extrusion technology toward pharmaceutical objectives

Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) technology is a widely used for manufacturing process in the plastic and pharmaceutical industries and is an efficient and simple for the production of a solid dispersion. This technique is an environmental friendly, continuous process that does not use solvents. It is time and cost efficient and can be easily scaled up. In addition, HME may be used in conjunction with other technologies to effectively increase the solubility and dissolution rate of poorly water-soluble drugs. Numerous research papers on the progress of HME technology in the pharmaceutical industry have been written, and products manufactured using HME have been approved by the FDA. However, there are some drawbacks to the products manufactured using through HME. These are related to the high energy input coming from the applied shear forces and high temperature, which could lead to drug or polymer degradation and thus significantly impact the product quality. Despite these disadvantages, HME has been employed in various advanced applications, such as taste masking and targeted drug delivery. This review article focuses on advances in HME technology, which include improvement in the weaknesses of HME, patient-centric formulations, and the outlook for uses such as formulation development.