Patent ID: 8597680

Claim:
A plurality of drug microtablets produced by a method which comprises: (i) loading a lyophilization capillary channel with a liquid drug solution; (ii) lyophilizing the liquid drug solution in the lyophilization capillary channel to produce a lyophilized drug formulation; (iii) compressing the lyophilized drug formulation in the lyophilization capillary channel, or in a compression capillary channel, to form one of the microtablets; (iv) ejecting the microtablet from the lyophilization capillary channel or the compression capillary channel; and (v) repeating steps (i) through (iv) in series or parallel to form a second of the microtablets, wherein the largest dimension of any of the microtablets is from 50 microns to 2000 microns, and wherein the microtablets have (i) an actual weight that deviates less than about 10% from a target weight for each microtablet, (ii) an actual amount of a drug that differs from a target amount of the drug for each microtablet by less than about 25% or (iii) both (i) and (ii).