“Why Granulation is Preferred Over Direct Compression in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing”
“Why Granulation is Preferred Over Direct Compression in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing”
In the Pharmaceutical industry, granulation is the preferred method instead of direct compression of powders, this is because of the advantages associated with granules. In this article, you will understand why granulation is preferred over direct compression in a simple way
We know tablets can be manufactured by following methods
- Wet granulation
- Dry granulation
- Direct compression
But why most of the time granulation is preferred, when compared to direct compression, here are the reasons for it
The granulation process offers advantages that can address the limitations of direct compression in terms of feasibility of the process and also the product quality.
Granulation Process offers advantages like
- Improved flowability: Most of the pharmaceutical powders have poor flow properties, this results in weight variation of the tablets as well as clogging of materials in the hopper due to poor flow, this can be overcome by granule formation, which have good flow properties, as they form large particles compared to powders and they flow easily through the hopper during compression.
- Improved Compressibility: Most of the powders are difficult to compress due to low compressibility leading to formation of friable tablets. Formation of granules results in increased bulk density and compressibility of the powder blend, and the produced tablets are strong enough to with stand during transportation, handling and packing.
- Content uniformity issues can be overcome with granulation process due to more uniform distribution of API and excipients.
- Reduced segregation: We know to be compressed material is mixture of excipients and API, which have different particle sizes and there is a chance of segregation during handling and processing, which can be overcome by granulation process
- Other advantages include prevents spreading of powder particles in the processing area, thereby reducing the risk to the operators, and reduce weight variation problems due enhanced flow properties, improved dissolution and bioavailability.