Spray drying

Spray drying is widely used across the pharmaceutical industry to transform a liquid feed into a powder in a single continuous process.

It is generally regarded as the most flexible formulation technology for enhancing the delivery of APIs and larger biomolecules. It is also one of our core areas of expertise.

Our expert team supports customers in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania with high quality, flexible contract services for demanding projects and complex formulation challenges.

Our specialist pharmaceutical spray drying capabilities can handle APIs, high potent APIs, peptides, and controlled substance. Plus, with more than 20 years’ experience in successful technology transfer and scale-up, we can support you at every stage of the process.

What is spray drying?

Spray drying involves the atomisation of a liquid feed into very small droplets within a hot drying gas. The feed can be a solution, a suspension, or an emulsion. The droplets dry very rapidly to become solid particles. The particles are then separated from the drying gas, using a cyclone or a filter bag, into a final spray dried powder product.

The benefits of spray drying

Spray drying reduces dosage costs, facilitates higher drug loading, and helps to extend product lifecycles. In addition, as a fast, efficient, and effective process, it also delivers a range of further benefits, including:

  • Improved bioavailability: spray dried dispersions of poorly soluble APIs
  • Stabilisation of biologicals: proteins, peptides
  • Improved therapeutic efficacy, safety, tolerability, and patient compliance
  • Preparation of directly compressible powder, useful for further processing into multiple dosage forms
  • Inhalable powders: to control particle size, morphology and other properties that are critical for lung delivery

Our spray drying capabilities

With our state-of-the-art facilities and wide range of leading-edge spray drying technologies, we can support you throughout the whole lifecycle of your product, from toxicology studies and early clinical phases, to late clinical stage and commercial supply.

Our spray dryers can use either two-fluid, ultrasonic or high-pressure nozzles. We have also invested in the latest containment technology enabling us to work in high containment applications, managing high potent compounds (down to 30ng/m3).

All our spray dryers can handle aqueous and organic solvents and there are no limitations on the choice of solvent, including acetone, chloroform, dichloromethane, and THF.

Our spray drying equipment includes:

  • GEA Mobile Minor
  • PSD-1
  • PSD-2 (x2)
  • PSD-3

Further secondary drying is possible in our static and dynamic vacuum dryers, both small and large scale.

Our state-of-the-art facilities and technologies mean we have the capacity and potential to give you full spray drying scale up from clinical trials to commercial supply when your project needs it.

All clinical trial manufacturing and commercial manufacturing is performed in accordance with (cGMP), with release approved by a Qualified Person (QP).

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We provide a range of specialist pharmaceutical contract manufacturing services in the spray drying of aqueous and organic solutions, of conventional APIs, HPAPIs, lipids, proteins, and in capsule filling for dry powder.

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