Collaborative Research: Predicting the Release Kinetics of Matrix Tablets

Pomona College, Claremont CA

Investigators

Abstract

This work will extend two mathematical models for the dissolution and release process occurring in sustained release matrix tablets. The first of these models uses random walks on the weighted contact graph of a random dense packing of spheres of multiple diameters. The second model consists of a system of partial differential equations of reaction-diffusion type for the solved and unsolved excipient and drug, respectively. We will develop new computational tools, borrowing from theories of random walks on graphs, probability density estimation, and numerical partial differential equations. The theoretical models will be implemented in fast, robust code, and model parameters will be calibrated to actual data in close collaboration with researchers in the pharmaceutical sciences. The team of investigators will develop mathematical and computational methods to predict the release kinetics of sustained release matrix tablets. These tablets are used to deliver an active drug and to gradually release it over an extended period of time. Sustained release tablets offer considerable advantages over immediate release tablets, namely maintaining more constant drug levels in the patient's body while minimizing the number of tablets that need to be taken each day. In previous work, jointly with collaborators in New Zealand (initiated by NSF grant DMS-0737537), we have proposed mathematical models for the dissolution and release process, predicting qualitatively excellent release curves for different compositions of the powder mixture. This research will streamline the design process of new and better pharmaceutical delivery devices and will introduce computational methods into a new field of science. All programs will be written in open source software and will be freely available online to interested researchers.