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ISSN: 0363-9045 (print), 1520-5762 (electronic)
Drug Dev Ind Pharm, Early Online: 1–10
! 2013 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc. DOI: 10.3109/03639045.2012.752497

Application and functional characterization of POVACOAT, a hydrophilic
co-polymer poly(vinyl alcohol/acrylic acid/methyl methacrylate) as a
hot-melt extrusion carrier
Ming Xu, Chungang Zhang, Yanfei Luo, Lishuang Xu, Xiaoguang Tao, Yanjiao Wang, Haibing He, and Xing Tang
Department of Pharmaceutics, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China
Abstract

Keywords

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of POVACOATTM, a hydrophilic
PVA copolymer, as a solid dispersion (SD) carrier for hot-melt extrusion (HME).
Methods: Bifendate (DDB), a water-insoluble drug, was chosen as the model drug. DDB was hotmelt extruded by a co-rotating twin screw extruder with POVACOATTM. The SD formability of
POVACOATTM was investigated by varying the composition ratios. Solid state characterization
was evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry, powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron
microscopy and Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy. In order to have a betterknowledge of the mechanism of dissolution enhancement, dissolution study, phase solubility
study and crystallization study of DDB from supersaturated solutions were performed. In
addition, the storage stability of the extrudate containing 10% DDB was investigated.
Results: Physical characterizations showed that DDB was amorphous up to 15% drug loading. The
phase solubility study revealed an AL-type curve. Moreover, POVACOATTM was found to have an
inhibitory effect on crystallization from supersaturated solutions. Compared with the pure DDB
and physical mixture, the dissolution rate and solubility of extrudates were significantly enhanced
and the drug loading markedly affected the dissolution of SDs. Furthermore, the stability test
indicated that 10% DDB-SD was stable during storage (40  C/75% RH).
Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that POVACOATTM is a valuable excipient for
the formulation of solid dispersions prepared by HME to improve dissolution of poorly watersoluble drugs.

Bifendate, hot-melt extrusion, POVACOAT,
solid dispersion, solubilization,
supersaturation

Introduction
Due to the emergence of high-throughput screening in drug
discovery, at least 50% of the new chemical entities (NCEs) arelimited to use in clinical therapy as a result of poor solubility.
There has been a sharp decline in the number of NCEs discovered
with optimal oral bioavailability1–3. However, a number of waterinsoluble drugs are highly bioactive. As a result, improvement ofdrug solubility and dissolution rate is an important issue,
especially for biopharmaceutics classification system (BCS)Class II compounds4. Nowadays, a variety of approaches havebeen used to enhance the solubility and dissolution rate of poorly
water-oluble drugs, such as solid dispersion (SD), salt formation,solubilization, the use of inclusion compounds based on
cyclodextrin and particle size reduction3,5.
The SD method is one of the most commonly usedpharmaceutical approaches to enhance the oral bioavailability ofdrugs with low aqueous solubility. The traditional method using

Address for correspondence: X. Tang, Department of Pharmaceutics,
Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Wen Hua Road No. 103, Shenyang
110016, People’s Republic of China. Tel: þ86 024 23986343. Fax: þ86
024 23911736. E-mail: tangpharm@yahoo.com.cn

History
Received 20 June 2012
Revised 14 November 2012
Accepted 15 November 2012
Published online 21 January 2013

organic solvent has been widely investigated, but this method has
a potential problem of residual organic solvent4.
The hot-melt extrusion (HME) technique has been developed
to prepare SDs over the past two decades. HME is one of the mostwidely used processing techniques in the plastics industry2.
Building on knowledge from the plastics industry, formulators can
extrude combinations of drugs, polymers and plasticizers into
various final forms to achieve the desired drug-release profiles6.
HME gains much attention and offers some distinct advantages
over other traditional methods. For example, it is solvent free,
involves continuous dry processing (necessitating fewer processing steps), offers better content uniformity and can greatly
improve bioavailability due to a higher degree of dispersion2,6.
Recently, a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) co-polymer(POVACOATÔ), a new aqueous PVA derivative, which is graftedwith acrylic acid and methyl methacrylate, was developed as afilm-coating polymer with a good film-forming ability without
plasticizers, hard capsules with the characteristics of oil resistanceand oxygen barrier and wet granulation binder materials7. The
chemical structure is shown in Figure 1(a). Learning from an
introduction brochure, POVACOATÔ is supplied as Type R witha molecular weight of 200 000 and an average degree ofpolymerization of 1400 and Type F with a molecular weight of20
13

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

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M. Xu et al.

Drug Dev Ind Pharm, Early Online: 1–10

Figure 1. Chemical structure of: (a) POVACOATÔ and (b) bifendate.

40 000 and an average degree of polymerization of 500.
POVACOATÔ is soluble only in water. POVACOATÔ is athermoplastic polymer and is used as a dry SD matrix. In Japan, it
has been reported that POVACOATÔ was employed to prepare
SDs in ultrasound assisted compaction and melt indexer
methods8, and the experimental results suggested that
POVACOATÔ could be efficiently applied to obtain SD
formulations with a high performance.
Bifendate (4,4 0 -dimethoxy-5,6,50 ,60 -bi(methylenedioxy)-2,2bicabomethoxybiphenyl, Figure 1b), is a synthetic intermediate
derived from schisandrin C (a component of Fructus schizandrae)
which is widely used in China for the treatment of chronic
hepatitis by lowering alanine transaminase in patients. It is rapidly
absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract after oral administration.
However, the application of DDB in clinical situations has
been limited due to its extremely poor aqueous solubility(about 2.5–4.0 mg/mL) and slow dissolution rate. Due to its
physicochemical properties, the bioavailability of DDB was only
10–30% after oral administration9. Given the fact that its
permeability is adequate, bifendate is categorized as a BCS
Class II drug according to the BCS. Consequently, several
attempts are reported in literature to enhance the solubility anddissolution of DDB via SDs10,11, mixed micelles12, microemulsions13 and provesicular powders14.
In this study, bifendate was hot-melt extruded by a co-rotating
twin-screw extruder with POVACOATÔ in order to enhance its
solubility and dissolution rate. POVACOATÔ is expected to be
applicable as an HME SD matrix based on its thermoplasticity. The
purpose of this study was to evaluate the applicability of
POVACOATÔ as a SD carrier for HME. In order to elucidate themechanism of dissolution enhancement, solid-state characteristics
of extrudates were investigated. The crystallinity of DDB was
examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) andpowder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD). Scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) was performed to observe the surface
morphology of the hot-melt extrudates. Moreover, Fouriertransformation infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was carried out toelucidate drug/polymer interactions in SDs. In order to better
understand the mechanisms involved during the dissolution of DDB
from SDs, dissolution testing was carried out, as well as phasesolubility study and crystallization study of bifendate fromsupersaturated solutions. Furthermore, an accelerated stability
study under stress conditions (40  C/75% RH) was performed todetermine the physical stability of SDs under the influence of theenvironmental factors, temperature and humidity.

Table 1. Processing conditions for HME.
Temperature ( C)
Parameters

Zone 1

Zone 2

Zone 3

Zone 4

Die

Rate (rpm)

P1
P2
P3

120
150
150

160
190
190

160
190
190

160
190
190

100
130
130

36
36
24

carrier after milling and then passing through a no. 80 mesh sieve
as described in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (Ch. P, 2010).
Bifendate (DDB) was purchased from Taizhou Haixiang
Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd (Taizhou, Zhejiang, China). All theother reagents were of either analytical or chromatographic grade.
Preparation of physical mixtures
DDB and POVACOATÔ were accurately weighed, and then weremixed in a polyethylene bag by hand for 10 min to obtain ahomogeneous physical mixture (PM; X% DDB-PM). The SDformability of POVACOATÔ was investigated by varying thecomposition ratios. The concentrations of drug in the formulations
were 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30% and 50% (w/w).
Preparation of SDs by HME
Bifendate SDs (X% DDB-SD) consisting of DDB and a polymeric
carrier, POVACOATÔ, were prepared by HME using a Coperion
KEYA TE-20 (Nanjing, Jiangshu, China) co-rotating twin-screw
extruder. The extruder consisted of a hopper, barrel, die, kneading
screw and heaters distributed over the entire length of the barrel.
The barrel L/D ratio (barrel length/barrel diameter) of the
extruder used was 32:1. The materials introduced into thehopper were carried forward by the feed screw, kneaded underhigh pressure by the kneading screw and then extruded from thecylindrical die. The temperature, feed rate and screw rate were
controlled by an external operation system. To optimize theextrusion process parameters, the temperature and the rates(screw and feed rates) were mainly investigated. The detailed
process parameters are presented in Table 1. The extrudate wascollected and allowed to cool at room temperature, thenpulverized with a laboratory micromill and passed through a no.
80 mesh sieve. The SD powder was subjected to further
investigation.

Materials and methods
Materials

Thermogravimetric analysis

The PVA co-polymer (POVACOATÔ, Type F, MW ¼ 40 000;
Daido Chemical Corporation, Osaka, Japan) was supplied as a

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used in the study toinvestigate the thermal decomposition of DDB andDOI: 10.3109/03639045.2012.752497

POVACOATÔ. The TGA measurements were carried out using a
Thermal Analyzer-60 WS and Thermogravimetric Analyzer-50(Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan). Tests were performed at a scan speedof 10  C/min over a range from 30  C to 330  C. Nitrogen wasused as the purging gas during all TGA experiments.

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Differential scanning calorimetry
DSC was used to characterize the thermal properties of thepolymer, drug, PMs and hot-melt extrudates. DSC analysis was
carried out using a Thermal Analyzer-60 WS, DSC-60(Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan). Samples between 5.0 and 10.0 mg
were accurately weighed, placed into crimped aluminum pans
and analyzed using a heating rate of 10  C/min from 30  C to240  C. Nitrogen was used as the purging gas at a flow rate of
40 mL/min.
Powder X-ray diffraction
PXRD was used to assess the physical state of bifendate in PM
and SDs. PXRD was performed using a D/Max-2400 X-ray
fluorescence spectrometer (Rigaku, Osaka, Japan) with a Cu-Ka
line as the source of radiation, and standard runs using a voltageof 56 kV, a current of 182 mA and a scanning rate of 2 /min over a2 from 5 to 45 .
Scanning electron microscopy
A SEM (SSX-550, Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan) was used to examine
the surface morphology of the SDs, which were placed on carbon
specimen holders, air dried and then coated with platinum in a
vacuum before being subjected to SEM. An accelerating voltageof 15 kV was used.
Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy
FT-IR spectra were obtained on a BRUKER IFS 55 FT-IR system(Bruker, Switzerland, Germany) using the KBr disk method toinvestigate the interactions between the drug and the carrier. The
scanning range was from 4000 to 400 cm1 and the resolution was
1 cm1.
HPLC analysis
The concentration of bifendate was determined according to the
Ch. P (2010) by HPLC using a Hitachi L-2130 intelligent pump
(Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan). An AglientÔ C18 column(250  4.6 mm2, 5 mm, Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA)
was used with a mobile phase consisting of methanol–water(60:40, v/v). A Hitachi UV detector L-2400 (Hitachi, Tokyo,
Japan) was set at 278 nm and the chromatographic analyses were
performed at 35  C at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min.
Effect of POVACOATä on the solubility of bifendate
The equilibrium solubility of crystalline bifendate in purified
water was measured at 37  C in the presence and absence of
POVACOATÔ. Phase solubility study was performed according
to the method reported by Higuchi & Connors15. An excess
amount (900 mg) of crystalline bifendate was dispersed in 900 mLof water, in which POVACOATÔ had been previously dissolved,
and stirred at 100 rpm. Samples of 5 mL were withdrawn fromeach vessel at predetermined time intervals (24, 48 and 72 h) andfiltered through a 0.15 mm cellulose acetate-type membrane filter.
At each time point, the same volume of fresh medium was
replaced. The concentration of bifendate in the solutions wasdetermined by HPLC analysis. The solubility of DDB in water in
the absence of POVACOATÔ was also determined. All
measurements were carried out in triplicate.

Application of POVACOAT as an HME carrier

3

Inhibitory effect of POVACOATä on recrystallization fromsupersaturated solutions
The effect of the polymer on the solution concentration–timeprofile was also evaluated following the generation of supersaturated solutions of bifendate. A concentrated solution of DDB
in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was prepared by dissolving 45 mg
of crystalline DDB in 5 mL of DMSO which was subsequently
added to 900 mL of purified water at 37  C. This generated an
initial drug solution concentration of 50 mg/mL in water, into
which 1710, 810, 510, 360, 210 or 90 mg of POVACOATÔ had
been previously dissolved, leading to a final POVACOATÔ
concentration of 1.90, 0.90, 0.57, 0.40, 0.23 or 0.10 mg/mL,
respectively. The solution was stirred with a rotating paddle at
100 rpm; 5 mL samples were withdrawn from each vessel atpredetermined time intervals and filtered through a 0.15 mm
cellulose acetate membrane filter. At each time point, the sample
withdrawn was replaced with an equivalent amount of fresh
dissolution medium. The concentration of DDB in each sampled
aliquot was determined by HPLC. The same experiment was
performed in purified water in the absence of POVACOATÔ.
Dissolution studies
The dissolution testing was performed according to dissolution test
method 2 as described in the Ch. P (2010). The dissolution test was
carried out at 37  C in 900 mL of distilled water using a ZRS-8G
dissolution apparatus. The paddle speed was 50 rpm and all
experiments were carried out in triplicate. Samples equivalent to
90 mg of DDB were added to 900 mL of test fluid. Samples of 5 mL
were withdrawn from each vessel at predetermined time intervals.
All samples taken were filtered through a 0.15 mm cellulose acetate
membrane filter. At each time point, the same volume of fresh
medium was replaced. The concentration of DDB in each sampled
aliquot was determined by the HPLC method as described above.
Stability test
The stability of 10% DDB-SD was performed in a drug stability
test chamber (LRH-150(250)-Y, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China)
maintained at 40  C and 75% RH. The extrudate containing 10%(w/w) bifendate was sealed tightly in aluminum foil packing. The
duration of the study was six months. The stability was evaluatedby dissolution testing and DSC analysis at zero, one, two, threeand six months.

Results and discussion
HME with POVACOATä
Thermal stability
TGA is a very rapid analytical technique that can determine massloss as a function of temperature. Before preparing SDs by HME,
the thermal stability of DDB and POVACOATÔ was measured by
TGA. As shown in Figure 2, all materials used in this study
exhibited acceptable thermal stability up to approximately 250  C
and significant decomposition was observed at higher temperature. Therefore, DDB and POVACOATÔ were thermostable
during HME under 200  C.
Optimization of extrusion process parameters
For HME, the main process parameters are the extrusion
temperature, screw rate and feed rate. In this study, in order tosimplify the course of optimization, the screw and feed rates wereset at the same value and the ratio of DDB to POVACOATÔ was
fixed at 10:90. From the dissolution profiles shown in Figure 3, as
the extrusion temperature increased, the dissolution rate andDrug Development and Industrial Pharmacy Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Shenyang Pharmaceutical University on 09/17/13
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M. Xu et al.

Drug Dev Ind Pharm, Early Online: 1–10

Figure 2. TGA thermograms of raw materials: (a) POVACOATÔ and (b) DDB.

and 15% drug loadings, the DSC thermograms exhibited acomplete suppression of the drug fusion peak, indicating theamorphous state of DDB in SDs.
In order to investigate the maximum loading amount ofamorphous DDB in the SD formulation, formulations withdifferent drug loadings were prepared. From the DSC results, it
can be observed when the drug loading was over 15%, there wasan endothermic peak. It was inferred that when the ratio of DDB
to POVACOATÔ was 20:80, the carrier could not dissolve theentire drug and part of the drug was in a crystalline form insteadof amorphous form. This is because the carrier has a limited
ability to dissolve the drug16. As a result, DDB in DDB/POVACOATÔ SDs could be amorphous up to 15% drug loading.
Figure 3. Dissolution profiles of 10% DDB-SD extruded at different
process parameters. (˙) P1; (g) P2 and (m) P3.

maximum supersaturated concentration were both enhanced.
Judging from the dissolution curves, the screw speed in a certain
range had no effect on the dissolution. However, the screw rate
determined the residence time of material in the barrel. If it was
too low, the material would be heated for a long time, maybe
giving rise to degradation. As a result, the temperatures were
finally set at 150  C, 190  C, 190  C, 190  C and 130  C for
Zone1, Zone2, Zone3, Zone4 and the die, respectively. The screw
and feed rates were both set at 36 rpm.
Physical characterizations of SDs
The crystallinity of DDB in the DDB/POVACOATÔ binary
system was examined by DSC and PXRD. SEM was used to study
the surface morphology of the hot-melt extrudates and FT-IR wasused to study intermolecular interactions between DDB and
POVACOATÔ in SDs.
DSC study
The DSC thermograms for the bulk polymer, pure DDB, DDBPOVACOATÔ PM and extrudates processed at different drug
loadings are shown in Figure 4. Bifendate crystals exhibited a
sharp endothermic peak at 186  C resulting from melting of DDB
crystals and so did the PM. However, in the SD curves, it was
found that an endothermic peak around 186  C was present at
20%, 30% and 50% drug loadings, while in the case of 5%, 10%

PXRD study
The PXRD patterns of the samples were recorded to confirm theloss of drug crystallinity in the SDs. The PXRD patterns ofpolymer, DDB, PM and SDs are shown in Figure 5. Pure drug
showed a series of characteristic peaks of crystalline DDB at 2
angles of 12.013 , 19.567 , 20.669 , 23.527 and 24.998 .
POVACOATÔ exhibited amorphous characteristics and nocrystalline peak could be seen. The diffraction patterns of thePM with apparent peaks were similar to that of the pure drug,
indicating only a simple mixing of drug and carrier which did notchange the crystallinity of DDB. With regard to extrudates, PXRD
showed the similar results to the DSC thermograms. It can beobserved from Figure 6 that when the drug loading was over 15%,
there were still a certain weak diffraction peaks, indicating thatsome part of the drug was not present in the amorphous form, but
in the microcrystalline form. When the drug loading was under
20%, no detectable diffraction peak of DDB was observed,
suggesting that DDB was in an amorphous state in SDs.
Scanning electron microscopy
The SEM photomicrographs of pure DDB, POVACOATÔ, PM of
DDB/POVACOATÔ (1:9, w/w) and SDs were utilized to study
their surface morphological characteristics (Figure 7). Figure 7(a)and (b) revealed that POVACOATÔ and pure bifendate existed inirregular particles and cubic crystal structure, respectively. The
PM showed the presence of drug in the crystalline form alongwith irregular particles of POVACOATÔ (Figure 7c). As far as
the extrudates were concerned, bifendate crystals were notobserved at lower drug loadings (Figure 7d–f). Also, the surface

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Application of POVACOAT as an HME carrier

5

Figure 4. DSC profiles of the bifendate–POVACOATÔ system: (a) POVACOATÔ; (b) 5% DDB-SD; (c) 10% DDB-SD; (d) 15% DDB-SD; (e) 20%
DDB-SD; (f) 30% DDB-SD; (g) 50% DDB-SD; (h) 10% DDB-PM and (i) DDB.

Figure 5. PXRD patterns of the bifendate–POVACOATÔ system: (a) DDB; (b) 10% DDB-PM; (c) 50% DDB-SD; (d) 30% DDB-SD; (e) 20% DDBSD; (f) 15% DDB-SD; (g) 10% DDB-SD; (h) 5% DDB-SD and (i) POVACOATÔ.

of the extrudates was smooth and homogeneous. This observation
confirmed the formation of amorphous SDs and supported theconclusions from DSC and PXRD results. However, at higher
drug loadings (Figure 7g–i), microcrystals of DDB were clearlyobserved and the number of crystals increased as the drug loading
increased. These results obtained from SEM were consistent withthe other characterizations above.
FT-IR spectrometry
In order to study the possible interactions between POVACOATÔ
and DDB in the solid state, FT-IR spectra were recorded. Fromthe chemical structures, hydrogen bonding could be expected
between the hydroxyl groups of POVACOATÔ and the carbonylgroups of DDB and also between the hydroxyl group of
POVACOATÔ and the ether–oxygens of DDB. These interactions

would result in peak broadening and a bathochromic shift of theabsorption bands of the interacting functional groups17. The
infrared spectra of pure DDB, bulk POVACOATÔ, SD (10% drug
loading) and the corresponding PM are presented in Figure 6. The
FTIR spectrum of DDB showed an intense peak at 1716.9 cm1
which was related to carbonyl stretching. Also, two distinct peaks
were observed at 1595.9 and 1638.5 cm1 which were assigned tovibrations of the C¼C aromatic stretching. These three peaks
were the main characteristic bands used in evaluating any
interactions between drug and polymer. For POVACOATÔ, thecarbonyl absorption band was at 1734.7 cm1. Compared with
DDB and POVACOATÔ, the FT-IR spectra of the PM seemed to
be only a summation of the drug and carrier. This suggested thatin the case of the PM, there are no hydrogen-bonding interactions
between the drug and carrier. However, regarding the spectra of
the extrudate, it was found to be very similar to that of the carrier.

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Figure 6. FTIR spectra of: (a) DDB; (b) 10% DDB-PM; (c) 10% DDB-SD and (d) POVACOATÔ.

Figure 7. SEM micrographs of the surface morphology of the bifendate–POVACOATÔ system: (a) POVACOATÔ; (b) bifendate; (c) 10% DDB-PM;(d) 5% DDB-SD; (e) 10% DDB-SD; (f) 15% DDB-SD; (g) 20% DDB-SD; (h) 30% DDB-SD and (i) 50% DDB-SD.

At the same time, some detectable absorption bands almost
remained largely as in the spectra of the PM, although theirintensities became very weak. These results indicated the absenceof hydrogen-bonding interactions between DDB and
POVACOATÔ.
Phase solubility study
The solubility of the drug in the presence of concentrated
solutions of a polymeric carrier can help determine themechanism of dissolution from a SD18. To investigate thesolubilization power of POVACOATÔ, the equilibrium solubilityof crystalline DDB in distilled water containing 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 and
10.0 mg/mL of polymer was determined and compared with theTable 2. Phase solubility and thermodynamic parameters of bifendate atdifferent concentrations of POVACOATÔ.
Concentration of
POVACOATÔ (mg/mL)
0
1
2
5
10
Ks (mL/mg)

Concentration of
DDB (mg/mL)
2.56
3.64
4.32
6.51
10.39
1209.89

Sc/So

DGtr (J/mol)

1.00
1.42
1.69
2.54
4.06

0.00
903.92
1352.65
2402.94
3611.98

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DOI: 10.3109/03639045.2012.752497

Figure 8. Phase solubility diagram of bifendate in aqueous solutions of
POVACOATÔ.

equilibrium solubility in water in the absence of POVACOATÔ.
All solutions could reach the equilibrium after 72 h. Interestingly,
POVACOATÔ yielded a slightly emulsified opalescent solution
when dissolved in water. The solubility of DDB in water at 37  C
was 2.56 mg/mL. Therefore, DDB could be considered to be awater-insoluble drug according to the Ch. P (2010). As presented
in Table 2, there was a significant increase in the equilibrium
solubility of DDB when POVACOATÔ was present at 1.0 (1.42fold), 2.0 (1.69-fold), 5.0 (2.54-fold) and 10.0 mg/mL (4.06-fold).
These results indicate that POVACOATÔ has a solubilizing effecton DDB. The phase solubility of DDB at 37  C was observed as afunction of the POVACOATÔ concentration (Figure 8). The
phase solubility diagram corresponded to an AL-type system as
the computed slope was less than unity suggesting the formationof 1:1 drug–carrier interactions15,19. Hydrophilic carriers are
known to interact with drug molecules in solution mainly byelectrostatic forces (ion–ion, ion–dipole and dipole–dipole bonds)
and occasionally by other types of forces like van der Waals forces
and hydrogen bonds18,20.
An indication of the process of transfer of DDB from purewater to aqueous solution of POVACOATÔ was obtained fromthe values of the Gibbs free energy change19. The Gibbs freeenergy of transfer (DGtr ) of DDB from pure water to aqueous
solutions of POVACOATÔ was calculated using the following
equation:
 
Sc
ð1Þ
DGtr ¼ 2:303RT log
Sowhere Sc/So is the ratio of the molar solubility of DDB in aqueous
solution of POVACOATÔ to that of pure water, R the general gas
constant and T the absolute temperature.
The value of the apparent stability constant, Ks, between thedrug–carrier combination was calculated from the phase solubility
profiles20, as described below:
Ks ¼

slope
interceptð1  slopeÞ

ð2Þ

The obtained values of DGtr and apparent stability constants(Ks) are presented in Table 2. The DGtr values show whether thereaction condition is favorable or unfavorable for drug solubilization in the aqueous carrier solution. Negative DGtr values indicate
favorable conditions that the drug solubilization is spontaneous21.
DGtr values were all negative for POVACOATÔ at allconcentrations, unequivocally indicating the spontaneous natureof DDB solubilization. The values showed a declining trend withan increase in the carrier concentration, demonstrating that the7

Figure 9. Inhibitory effect of POVACOATÔ on recrystallization of asupersaturated solution of bifendate (DDB; 50 mg/mL) in the watercontaining 1.90 (g), 0.90 (˙), 0.57 (m), 0.40 (), 0.23 («) and 0.10 ()(mg/mL) of POVACOATÔ and in the absence of POVACOATÔ (4).

process of DDB transfer from pure water to carrier solution was
more favorable at higher carrier levels.
The enhancement of solubility might be ascribed to theimproved wettability of the water-soluble polymer, the formationof weakly soluble complexes18, the co-solvent effect of
the carrier20 and/or the micellar solubilization owing to theamphiphilic structure of POVACOATÔ20,22. According to theclassification of SDs, third generation SDs refer to those in which
the dissolution profile can be improved if the carrier has surface
activity or self-emulsifying properties. Therefore, the SD using
POVACOATÔ as the carrier is classified as third generation SDs.
These third generation SDs are intended to achieve the highest
degree of bioavailability for poorly soluble drugs and to stabilize
the SD, avoiding drug recrystallization23.
Inhibitory effect of POVACOATä on recrystallization fromsupersaturated solutions
The inhibitory effect of POVACOATÔ on recrystallization of
DDB from a supersaturated solution was evaluated by adding a
concentrated solution of DDB to distilled water, in which thepolymer had been predissolved and then by monitoring thesolution concentration as a function of time. Figure 9 shows theresults obtained at different POVACOATÔ solution concentrations, 1.90, 0.90, 0.57, 0.40, 0.23 and 0.10 mg/mL, whichcorresponded to the POVACOATÔ solution concentrations thatwould be produced by total dissolution of SDs at drug/polymer
ratios of 5:95, 10:90, 15:85, 20:80, 30:70 and 50:50, respectively.
The result obtained for distilled water without POVACOATÔ isshown for reference.
The initial solution concentration of DDB that was generated
by dilution of the concentrated DMSO drug solution was 50 mg/
mL. As shown in Figure 9, in the absence of polymer, the DDB
concentration decreased rapidly, reaching 13.64 mg/mL after
30 min, and then continued to decrease and reached a plateau
after 300 min with a concentration close to the equilibrium
solubility of crystalline DDB. This rapid decrease in DDB
concentration suggested that DDB recrystallized immediatelyfrom a supersaturated concentration.
Interestingly, in the presence of POVACOATÔ, the initial drugconcentrations, within the first 10 min after addition of aconcentrated solution of DDB, all remained around 50 mg/mL.
In spite of the supersaturated solution, compared with the case of
the absence of POVACOATÔ, the drug concentration did not
decline immediately. It could be inferred that POVACOATÔ
might inhibit or delay the nucleation. As stated in the literature, inDrug Development and Industrial Pharmacy Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Shenyang Pharmaceutical University on 09/17/13
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8

M. Xu et al.

Drug Dev Ind Pharm, Early Online: 1–10

Figure 10. Dissolution profiles of the bifendate–POVACOATÔ system (g, 5% DDB-SD; ˙, 10% DDB-SD; m, 15% DDB-SD; , 20% DDB-SD;«, 30% DDB-SD; s, 50% DDB-SD; 4, 10% DDB-PM and *, DDB).

some cases, supersaturated solutions may show a metastable zone
(giving an apparent higher solubility), within which spontaneous
nucleation is not likely to occur until the metastable limit24,25.
Significant differences were observed after 10 min. The supersaturated concentration decreased gradually under stirring. Hence,
this implied that crystal growth could start immediately in the
supersaturated solution on condition that the nucleation process
took place prior to crystal growth26.
Obviously, the precipitation rate decreased as the
POVACOATÔ concentration increased, suggesting that
POVACOATÔ could play a role in inhibiting crystal growth
and the efficiency was dependent on the polymer
concentration. The higher the POVACOATÔ concentration was,the more efficient the inhibition was. Moreover, the DDB
concentrations achieved after 5 h were significantly higher thanthe equilibrium solubility of crystalline DDB (2.56 mg/mL).
These results indicated that there was a very marked
recrystallization inhibition due to the presence of
POVACOATÔ at all concentrations relative to distilled water
without POVACOATÔ.
The inhibition of crystallization and crystal growth bypolymers has been observed previously18,25,27–29. However, themechanisms remain poorly explained and unclear, perhaps
because this retardation of DDB recrystallization was a complex
process and resulted from several simultaneous mechanisms, suchas polymer adsorption25,27, drug/polymer interaction18, fluid
viscosity18 and protective colloidal effect8 as possible contributing factors.
Dissolution studies
Resulting from the change in free energy of the system,
amorphous SDs are capable of providing significantly enhanced
dissolution rates compared with the crystalline material30. In vitro
dissolution testing of SDs, as well as unprocessed crystalline
DDB and the PM, were characterized under nonsink conditions inorder to evaluate the ability of POVACOATÔ to generate andmaintain supersaturated drug solutions18,30,31. The dissolution
profiles are shown in Figure 10. Critical dissolution parameters
for each formulation were also calculated and are presented inTable 3. The initial dissolution rates were calculated from theconcentration of bifendate after the first 5 min of dissolution22,28
and are presented in Table 3. It can be seen that SDs containing
95% POVACOATÔ showed the highest initial dissolution rate

Table 3. Summary of dissolution parameters for pure DDB and its PM
and SDs.

Parameters
DDB
10% DDB-PM
5% DDB-SD
10% DDB-SD
15% DDB-SD
20% DDB-SD
30% DDB-SD
50% DDB-SD

Initial dissolution
rate (mg/mL min)Cmax
(mg/mL)

Cmax/S0

C300 min(mg/mL)

0.00
0.04
2.49
1.94
1.52
1.29
0.89
0.64

0.86
1.08
18.86
14.89
11.98
10.59
8.33
7.80

0.34
0.42
7.37
5.82
4.68
4.14
3.25
3.05

0.86
1.08
10.55
9.53
8.76
8.39
8.02
7.52

and that the initial dissolution rate decreased with a decrease inpolymer concentration in the SD.
From the dissolution profiles in Figure 10, it can be seen thatthe dissolution rate of SDs was much higher than that of the PM
and bifendate crystals. During in vitro dissolution testing, the PM
and the DDB crystals exhibited very slow release and theconcentrations at 300 min (C300 min) were only 1.08 and 0.86 mg/
mL, respectively. As POVACOATÔ had an effect on the DDB
solubilization, the dissolution rate of PM was a bit higher thanthat of DDB crystals. However, it was found that only thesolubilization effect of POVACOATÔ did not markedly enhancethe dissolution during a short period. In the SD dissolution curves,the DDB concentration quickly reached the maximum supersaturated concentration (Cmax) and the maximum bifendate
concentrations of SDs at 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30% and 50%
drug loadings were 18.86, 14.89, 11.98, 10.59, 8.33 and 7.80 mg/
mL, respectively. From these results, it was found as the drug
loading increased, the maximum concentration became smallerand smaller. Because the amorphous is superior to the crystalline
in terms of solubilty and dissolution rate, it was concluded that the
drug loading markedly affected the degree of dispersion and thedrug state (molecular, amorphous and/or microcrystalline form)in dispersions and then impacted the dissolution. However, a burst
release followed by a gradual decline in SDs dissolution at drug
loadings 530% could be explained by the release of DDB in an
amorphous or molecular state followed by the formation of drug
particles, namely recrystallization because of supersaturation.
However, this retarded recrystallzation was supposed to be due tothe protective colloidal effect of POVACOATÔ on stabilizing theDrug Development and Industrial Pharmacy Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Shenyang Pharmaceutical University on 09/17/13
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DOI: 10.3109/03639045.2012.752497

Application of POVACOAT as an HME carrier

9

Figure 11. Dissolution profiles of 10% DDB-SD after storage and Cmax at different months as a function of time.

crystal nuclei and suppressing the particle growth. The crystal
growth inhibition during dissolution may be an importantconsideration to achieve the full benefits of the dissolution
enhancement of SDs32. On the other hand, in the case of SDs at
30% and 50% drug loadings, there were no peaks in the dissolution
curves. The drug in the SDs was released to the maximum
concentration and then the concentration maintained at about 8.0
and 7.5 mg/mL for 30% and 50%, respectively. This could be related
to the state of the drug in the SDs, because the drug was mostly
present in the form of crystals at high drug loadings.
Knowledge of the mechanism of drug release from SDs isessential for understanding the enhancement in the dissolution
rate of a poorly water-soluble drug. As stated in literature withrespect to the release mechanism, polymer-controlled dissolution(high-polymer concentrations) and drug-controlled dissolution(high-drug loadings) have been defined31,33,34. Consequently, it
was found in this study that with the increase of drug loading, i.e.
the decrease of POVACOATÔ concentration, amorphous ormolecular dispersions shifted to microcrystalline dispersions andthe release mechanism gradually shifted from carrier-controlled todrug-controlled dissolution.

Figure 12. DSC thermograms of 10% DDB-SD after storage: (a) DDB;(b) initial; (c) one month; (d) two months; (e) three months; (f) six months
and (g) POVACOATÔ.

Conclusions

Stability study
Dissolution testing

After storage (40 C, RH 75%) for six months, dissolution testingof 10% DDB-SD at several time intervals was carried out. The
results are shown in Figure 11. It can be observed clearly from thefigure that after storage, the dissolution profiles were similar to
the initial state and the maximum supersaturated concentration(Cmax) was found to be relatively constant under storage, so it
could be concluded that the amorphous state of DDB in 10%
DDB-SD was not destroyed and ageing did not take place duringstorage, which indicated that 10% DDB-SD was stable.
Physical characterization
DSC recordings of 10% DDB-SD before and after storage (40  C,
RH 75%) are shown in Figure 12. It can be observed that there
was no endothermic peak around 186  C after storage. These
results showed that DDB remained amorphous during storage,
which proved the good stability of SD prepared using
POVACOATÔ by HME technology.

In this article, POVACOATÔ, a new hydrophilic PVA copolymer, was successfully applied to prepare SDs by HME
technology to improve the dissolution of DDB. The TGA analysis
showed that POVACOATÔ was thermostable enough to be hotmelt extruded under 200  C. PXRD, DSC and SEM studies
indicated that in SDs DDB was present in the amorphous form up
to 15% drug loading, while part of the drug existed in the
crystalline form at high-drug loadings. The phase solubility
studies revealed an AL-type curve, indicating a linear increase in
drug solubility with carrier concentration. The negative values of
the Gibbs free energy of transfer for DDB from water to an
aqueous solution of POVACOATÔ demonstrated the spontaneityof the transfer. Furthermore, POVACOATÔ was found to have an
inhibitory effect on crystallization from supersaturated solutions
and stabilize the supersaturated drug concentration generated by
the dissolution of amorphous drug during dissolution and theefficiency was dependent on the polymer concentration. From thedissolution results, the dissolution rate and solubility were greatly
enhanced compared with pure DDB and the PM and the drug

10

M. Xu et al.

loading observably affected the dissolution of DDB from SDs.
The stability test showed that the amorphous SD (10% DDB-SD)
remained stable after storage. The results of this study indicatethat POVACOATÔ is a valuable and promising excipient in theformulation of SDs of bifendate prepared by HME.

Acknowledgements

Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Shenyang Pharmaceutical University on 09/17/13
For personal use only.

Dr David B. Jack is gratefully thanked for correcting this article. The
authors are grateful to Dr Dongchun Liu for his guidance and help in thisstudy. At the same time, the authors are thankful to Daido Chemical
Corporation (Japan) for providing the gift sample of POVACOATÔ tosupport this study.

Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
This study was financially supported by Liaoning Provincial
Science and Technology Department (2009ZX09301-012).

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