PVP/ketoprofen coprecipitation using supercritical antisolvent process

In this work, Supercritical Antisolvent (SAS) technique is proposed to incorporate ketoprofen (KET), a poorly water-soluble anti-inflammatory drug with analgesic and antipyretic properties, within polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer. In order to obtain micrometric particles with controlled dimensions, operating pressures in the range 90–150 bar, concentration of PVP/KET mixture in DMSO from 10 to 100 mg/mL, and PVP/KET ratio from 3:1 to 20:1 were used. Composite spherical microparticles with mean diameters ranging from 2.41 (±1.29) and 3.81 (±2.01) μm were successfully produced, at different operating conditions. Some analytical techniques, such as differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy, were used for the powders' characterization. An increase in the drug dissolution rate in the coprecipitated particles of about 4 times with respect to the unprocessed KET was measured.