Sharareh Salar-Behzadi

Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, Austria

Title: Structure - Function Relationship of Lipid-Based Excipients in Advanced Pharmaceutical

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Biography

Sharareh Salar-Behzadi is assoc. professor at the department of pharmaceutical technology and biopharmacy, University of Graz, and key researcher at Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, Graz, Austria. She studied pharmacy and received her PhD from University of Vienna in pharmaceutical formulation and process development.

Her interest is in pharmaceutical material science, solid state, structure-function analysis of pharmaceutical excipients, with a focus on lipid-based drug delivery systems, particle engineering for different routes of administration and patient-centric product development.

Abstract

The following three factors play an important role on the gradually increased expenses of global pharmaceutical R&D: a) rising number of new FDA approvals in the recent years, b) increased awareness of pharmaceutical companies of the sustainability of their production, c) increased awareness of the specific requirements of patients as individuals. These trends are closely associated with the demand for innovative and robust dosage forms with stable performance. Using excipients with desired functionality is the key parameter for realizing this demand. In this context, lipid-based excipients (LBEs) have been increasingly applied due to their advantages such as being naturally occurring materials, low-toxic, biocompatible, and easily available. The serious challenge, however, is their unstable solid state, which affects the stability and robustness of pharmaceutical products.

In this work, the structure-function relationship of LBEs and its effect on the performance of pharmaceutical products are discussed. Moreover, the ideal properties of LBE are defined from molecular to macroscopic level, taking a group of advanced LBEs as an example. Case-studies are shown to discuss their functionality as matrix agents and solubility enhancer in preparation of stable nano-lipid suspensions, spray-dried engineered particles, lipid-based extruded filaments and 3D-printed forms for a variety of pharmaceutical dosage forms.