Use of Dehydrated Beta-Cyclodextrin as Pharmaceutical Excipient

Abstract

Cyclodextrins, and expecially beta ones, are widely used in the pharmaceutical field for their ability of improving the solubility and the stability of drugs by complex formation at the solid state. Such phenomenon occurs only when cyclodextrin has a certain water content, being the removal of water from internal cavity essential for the interaction between the drug and the excipient. Anyway, the dehydration of beta cyclodextrin leads to a product with peculiar properties, which is reported to be not able to form inclusion complex at the solid state, but is very effective in increasing the rate of complex formation in solution with a consequent strong influence on dissolution performances of drugs. This approach is extremely interesting for obtaining fast dissolving tablets of drugs that are able for their own characteristics, to form stable solid inclusion complexes only in solution, but not at the solid state. The formulation process is extremely simple and of low cost involving only the physical mixing of the drug with the excipients before tableting or other pharmaceutical processes.