Developing and Validating Dissolution Procedures

The dissolution performance test is a required test for all solid oral dosage forms for product release testing. It also is used commonly as a predictor of a drug product's in-vivo performance. To help satisfy dissolution requirements, the USP provides information in the way of a general chapter on dissolution, as well as related chapters on disintegration and drug release (1–3). The USP and the FDA also provide guidelines on development and validation of dissolution procedures (4–9), and while this month's column will draw from this information and will discuss the available guidance in some detail, we encourage readers to consult the references for additional details.

In-vitro dissolution data, together with bioavailability, and chemistry, manufacturing, and control (CMC) data, is a critical component of any new drug application (NDA) submitted to the FDA. A dissolution test is really a simple concept; a tablet or capsule is placed into a known volume of media, and as it dissolves the resulting solution is sampled over time, and assayed (often by high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC], but also by spectrophotometry) for the level of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) present. However, the design, development, and validation of the procedure can be quite involved, especially when one considers that not only must the dissolution procedure be developed and validated, but also any analytical technique used for the assay.

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