Fast inspection and qualitative characterisation of pharmaceutical particles with Phenom ParticleMetric Software

The Phenom desktop SEM in combination with the ParticleMetric software application is a powerful analysis tool for pharmaceutical industry.

With 100,000x magnification, intuitive user interface and never lost navigation, the Phenom scanning electron microscope removes the difficulties associated with operating a traditional SEM. High resolution images of pharmaceutical particles can be obtained in the lab within seconds. Acquired images can then be analyzed using the ParticleMetric software, giving you visual and statistical data of your particles. The Phenom can help shorten drug development and validation cycles, enabling faster time-to-market for new discoveries and innovations in powder design, development, and quality control.

Particles

Production of solid drug dosage form typically begins with the formation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) into particles, generally within the range of 0.1 to 10 micrometers. Once the API is in the particulate form it is blended with an incipient to form a larger particle called a granule in order to improve the flow and physiochemical properties with respect to the API.

The size, shape and morphology of API and granule particles are important characteristics that can influence dissolution behavior and drug bioavailability. Smaller particles with minimal size and shape variance provide faster and more predictable dissolution and absorption rates. Additionally, particle size and shape influence pharmaceutical production properties such as flow, compaction and dissolution.

The Phenom

Particle measurement and visualisation is where the Phenom comes into place. Using automated image mapping, the Phenom automatically takes multiple images, capturing thousands of particles within high resolution images. These images can then be analysed by the ParticleMetric software (see image).

The software detects the particles and measures morphological and particle size data. The data can then be easily visualised in the histograms and scatter plots. Histograms of any measured particle property can be generated by numerical value and volume. Scatter plots can be plotted from any combination of particle properties to reveal correlations and trends. 

The histograms scatter plots and generated images can be exported in the selected format to be used as a reporting tool. The Phenom particle analysis solution allows users to obtain the data they need, when they need it. As a result, ParticleMetric accelerates particle analysis and improves product quality.

Main Advantages of Particlemetric Software

• Acquire images directly from the Phenom
• Identify and confirm phenomena such as broken particles, agglomerates and foreign particles
• Correlate particle features such as diameter, circularity, aspect ratio and convexity
• Image collection is limitless as digital files are easily stored on a network or USB disk for data sharing, communication, or later reference
• The Phenom’s ease of use and ability to operate in any environment means anyone can use it to visually interpret a wide range of samples
• Statistical data with high-quality images.

For more information please contact us.