PVP/corticosteroid microspheres produced by supercritical antisolvent coprecipitation

Coprecipitation of poorly water soluble drugs with an hydrophilic polymer can enhance the drug dissolution rate and, therefore, its bioavailability. In this work, supercritical antisolvent (SAS) precipitation is proposed for the coprecipitation of corticosteroids. This class of compounds cannot be directly processed by SAS, since it precipitates in form of large crystals. Dexamethasone (DMS), prednisolone (PDN) and budesonide (BDS) were tested. To control microspheres size and morphology, the effect of polymer/drug ratio, precipitation pressure and concentration were investigated.

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