Evaluation methods and strategies to improve compression characteristics of pharmaceutical powders

Although tablets have been the most commonly used oral solid dosage forms, there are still challenges with capping, lamination, and punch sticking throughout the manufacturing process. Pharmaceutical formulations with good compression characteristics are essential for the preparation of qualified tablets. Compression properties, including compressibility, compactibility, tabletability, and manufacturability, can be evaluated by various established approaches, including mathematical models or compression parameters. These methods help to fully understand the deformation and densification mechanisms of powders with different properties and can predict the compression behavior of powders to some extent, thus guiding the development of tablets with high quality. In addition, optimizing compression properties of powders with poor compression characteristics is of interest to researchers. Thus, a comprehensive summary of improvement strategies is essential to address tablet manufacturing challenges. This review article summarizes the compression processes and bonding mechanisms of pharmaceutical powders and the methods commonly used to evaluate the compression properties. Strategies for improving the compression characteristics of APIs and pharmaceutical excipients are also elucidated.