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Review
. 2021 May 7;13(5):668.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13050668.

Continuous Twin Screw Granulation: A Review of Recent Progress and Opportunities in Formulation and Equipment Design

Christoph Portier  1 , Chris Vervaet  1 , Valérie Vanhoorne  1
Affiliations
Review

Continuous Twin Screw Granulation: A Review of Recent Progress and Opportunities in Formulation and Equipment Design

Christoph Portier et al. Pharmaceutics. .

Abstract

Continuous twin screw wet granulation is one of the key continuous manufacturing technologies that have gained significant interest in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in academia over the last ten years. Given its considerable advantages compared to wet granulation techniques operated in batch mode such as high shear granulation and fluid bed granulation, several equipment manufacturers have designed their own manufacturing setup. This has led to a steep increase in the research output in this field. However, most studies still focused on a single (often placebo) formulation, hence making it difficult to assess the general validity of the obtained results. Therefore, current review provides an overview of recent progress in the field of continuous twin screw wet granulation, with special focus on the importance of the formulation aspect and raw material properties. It gives practical guidance for novel and more experienced users of this technique and highlights some of the unmet needs that require further research.

Keywords: continuous manufacturing; formulation development; innovation; process development; review; twin screw granulation; wet granulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Advantages of continuous manufacturing.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Setup of two fully integrated powder-to-tablet lines. (Top): Consigma by GEA Pharma Systems (adopted from www.gea.com; accessed on 9 April 2021); (bottom): QbCon by L.B. Bohle (courtesy of L.B. Bohle).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Evolution in publications on continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing and pharmaceutical twin screw granulation, indexed in PubMed as Continuous-Manufacturing AND Pharmaceutical (blue) and Pharmaceutical AND Twin-Screw AND Granulation (orange), respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Friability contour plots of formulations containing 5% HPMC, lactose/MCC (1:1) as filler and (A) 5% acetaminophen, (B) placebo, (C) 5% theophylline anhydrous, (D) 10% mebendazole, and (E) 10% metformin hydrochloride. Adapted with permission from [12], Elsevier, 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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