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Elucidating the Splitting Behavior of Tablets to Optimize the Pharmacotherapy in Veterinary Medicine

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Abstract

It is well known that the splitting of tablets can bring serious risks to the health of the treated animals, e.g., the possible adverse reactions caused by overdoses of fenbendazole or aspirin. In this regard, this work aimed to evaluate, for the first time, the splitting behavior of commercial veterinary tablets and identifying the technological aspects that interfere in this process. Tablets were cut in halves using a tablet splitter and were analyzed regarding mass variation, mass loss, friability, and hardness. Microstructural and morphological evaluations were also performed. For most of the tablets, organic flavor additives provided more uniformity and cohesive matrix, which preserved its hardness after the cut and led to subdivision results within acceptable limits for mass measurements and friability. Apart from the microstructure, the most critical technological aspect for a correct splitting performance in such tablets was the presence of a score. Thus, the results presented here allow us to guide the manufacturing of veterinary drug products in order to produce tablets more adapted to the splitting process.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Brazilian funding agencies DPI/UnB (Edital 04/2019), FAP-DF (193.001.741/2017), and CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior). The authors would also like to thank CONICET/Argentina for providing the grants for GR Bedogni and the National University of Rosario (Argentina).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área Técnica Farmacéutica, Departamento de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina

    Giselle R. Bedogni & Claudio J. Salomon

  2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Godoy cruz, Argentina

    Giselle R. Bedogni, Katia Seremeta, Nora Okulik & Claudio J. Salomon

  3. Laboratory of Food, Drug, and Cosmetics (LTMAC), School of Health Sciences, University of Brasilia, Brasília, DF, 70.910-900, Brazil

    Felipe Q. Pires & Marcilio Cunha-Filho

  4. Faculty of Ceilândia, University of Brasília (UnB), Brasília, DF, 72220-900, Brazil

    Juliano A. Chaker & Livia L. Sa-Barreto

  5. Departamento de Ciencias Básicas y Aplicadas, Universidad Nacional del Chaco Austral, Cte. Fernández 755, 3700, Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, Chaco, Argentina

    Katia Seremeta & Nora Okulik

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  1. Giselle R. Bedogni
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Bedogni, G.R., Pires, F.Q., Chaker, J.A. et al. Elucidating the Splitting Behavior of Tablets to Optimize the Pharmacotherapy in Veterinary Medicine. AAPS PharmSciTech 22, 67 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12249-021-01937-8

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