Microparticles, microspheres, and microcapsules are widely used constituents of multiparticulate drug delivery systems, offering both therapeutic and technological advantages. Microparticles are generally in the 1–1000 µm size range, serve as multiunit drug delivery systems with well-defined physiological and pharmacokinetic benefits in order to improve the effectiveness, tolerability, and patient compliance. This paper reviews their evolution, significance, and formulation factors (excipients and procedures), as well as their most important practical applications (inhaled insulin, liposomal preparations). The article presents the most important structures of microparticles (microspheres, microcapsules, coated pellets, etc.), interpreted with microscopic images too. The most significant production processes (spray drying, extrusion, coacervation, freeze-drying, microfluidics), the drug release mechanisms, and the commonly used excipients, the characterization, and the novel drug delivery systems (microbubbles, microsponges), as well as the preparations used in therapy are discussed in detail.

This paper presents a system, where images acquired with a digital camera are coupled with image analysis and deep learning to identify and categorize film coating defects and to measure the film coating thickness of tablets. There were 5 different classes of defective tablets, and the YOLOv5 algorithm was utilized to recognize defects, the accuracy of the classification was 98.2%. In order to characterize coating thickness, the diameter of the tablets in pixels was measured, which was used to measure the coating thickness of the tablets. The proposed system can be easily scaled up to match the production capability of continuous film coaters. With the developed technique, the complete screening of the produced tablets can be achieved in real-time resulting in the improvement of quality control.

Microparticles have unique benefits in the formulation of multiparticulate and multi-unit type pharmaceutical dosage forms allowing improved drug safety and efficacy with favorable pharmacokinetics and patient centricity. On the other hand, the above advantages are served by high and well reproducible quality attributes of the medicinal product where even flexible design and controlled processability offer success as well as possible longer product life-cycle for the manufacturers. Moreover, the specific demands of patients can be taken into account, including simplified dosing regimens, flexible dosage, drug combinations, palatability, and ease of swallowing. In the more than 70 years since the first modified-release formulation appeared on the market, many new formulations have been marketed and many publications have appeared in the literature. More unique and newer pharmaceutical technologies and excipients have become available for producing tailor-made particles with micrometer dimensions and beyond. All these have contributed to the fact that the sub-units (e.g. minitablets, pellets, microspheres) that make up a multiparticulate system can vary widely in composition and properties. Some units have mucoadhesive properties and others can float to contribute to a suitable release profile that can be designed for the multiparticulate formula as a whole. Nowadays, there are some available formulations on the market, which are able to release the active substance even for several months (3 or 6 months depending on the type of treatment). In this review, the latest developments in technologies that have been used for a long time are presented, as well as innovative solutions such as the applicability of 3D printing to produce subunits of multiparticulate systems. Furthermore, the diversity of multiparticulate systems, different routes of administration are also presented, touching the ones which are capable of carrying the active substance as well as the relevant, commercially available multiparticle-based medical devices. The versatility in size from 1 µm and multiplicity of formulation technologies promise a solid foundation for the future applications of dosage form design and development.

In this review, an extensive analysis of dry powder inhalers (DPIs) is offered, focusing on their characteristics, formulation, stability, and manufacturing. The advantages of pulmonary delivery were investigated, as well as the significance of the particle size in drug deposition. The preparation of DPI formulations was also comprehensively explored, including physico-chemical characterization of powders, powder processing techniques, and formulation considerations. In addition to manufacturing procedures, testing methods were also discussed, providing insights into the development and evaluation of DPI formulations. This review also explores the design basics and critical attributes specific to DPIs, highlighting the significance of their optimization to achieve an effective inhalation therapy. Additionally, the morphology and stability of 3 DPI capsules (Spiriva, Braltus, and Onbrez) were investigated, offering valuable insights into the properties of these formulations. Altogether, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of DPIs and their development, performance, and optimization of inhalation dosage forms.

The presence of additive manufacturing, especially 3D printing, has the potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical manufacturing owing to the distinctive capabilities of personalized pharmaceutical manufacturing. This study’s aim was to examine the behavior of commonly used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) under in vitro dissolution conditions. Polylactic acid (PLA) was also used as a comparator. The carriers were designed and fabricated using computer-aided design (CAD). After printing the containers, the behavior of PVA under in vitro simulated biorelevant conditions was monitored by gravimetry and dynamic light scattering (DLS) methods. The results show that in all the dissolution media PVA carriers were dissolved; the particle size was under 300 nm. However, the dissolution rate was different in various dissolution media. In addition to studying the PVA, as drug delivery carriers, the kinetics of drug release were investigated. These dissolution test results accompanied with UV spectrophotometry tracking indirectly determine the possibilities for modifying the output of quality by computer design.

In pharmaceutical sciences, visual inspection is one of the oldest methods used for description in pharmacopeias and is still an important part of the characterization and qualification of active ingredients, excipients, and dosage forms. With the development of technology, it is now also possible to take images of various pharmaceutical dosage forms with different imaging methods in a size range that is hardly visible or completely invisible to the human eye. By analyzing high-quality designs, physicochemical processes can be understood, and the results can be used even in the optimization of the composition of the dosage form and in the development of its production. The present study aims to show some of the countless ways image analysis can be used in the manufacturing and quality assessment of different dosage forms. This summary also includes measurements and an evaluation of, amongst others, a less studied dosage form, medicated foams.