SPEEDING UP WVTR TESTS OF FORMED, COMPLETED BLISTERS.

The amount of moisture gained between time of manufacture and use by a consumer, in many instances, adversely effects the ethicacy of drug products. This makes it important to identify the WVTR (water vapor transmission rate) of materials, components and packages prior to their use in production. The author's goal was to reduce the time necessary to determine the WVTR of flat barrier materials, vacuum-thermoformed blister components and completed vacuum-thermoformed blister packages used for unit-dose pharmaceutical tablets and capsules. The infrared detection technique appeared an ideal method of meeting this goal. To accomplish this, a diffusion cell was designed to accommodate thermoformed blister components and packages and an existing infrared detection instrument was modified to accept this cell.