Abstract                   

This workshop comprises two parts.  In the first part, we chronicle our experience characterizing high potent compounds using a fully contained Huxley Bertram HB100 Compaction Simulator.  Specifically, we detail:

• Our strategies around designing fully-automated experimentations using the HB100’s accessories, including the motorized feeders, tablet take-off and transfer mechanisms, and the built-in scale and tablet thickness gauge;
• A method for delivering sufficient in-die mass for producing reasonably thick compacts from low bulk density powders;
• The development of ‘load-control’ compression profiles that ensure robust data for a wide range of powders and despite variations in powder mass that inherently result from the use of the automated feeders due to the stochastic nature of granular materials.

In the second part, we summarize how compaction simulator data are used in both research and formulation development settings at Genentech.  Here, we first describe our approach to maximize the accuracy of the in-die compression data through challenging the default punch compliance routine and vendor-supplied die-wall pressure transducers calibration.  Subsequently, we demonstrate an app for manipulating the compaction simulator raw data so as to derive critical state constitutive parameters.  Lastly, we discuss how these parameters may be used in a formulation optimization approach wherein the mechanical properties of the individual components of a powder blend are used together with established mixing rules to predict the properties of that blend.