Preparation of drug delivery systems using supercritical fluid technology.

Small changes in temperature and pressure near the critical region induce dramatic changes in the density and solubility of supercritical fluids, thereby facilitating the use of environmentally benign agents such as CO2 for their solvent and antisolvent properties in processing a wide variety of materials. While supercritical fluid technologies have been in commercial use in the food and chromatography industries for several years, only recently has this technology made inroads in the formulation of drug delivery systems. This review summarizes some of the recent applications of supercritical fluid technology in the preparation of drug delivery systems. Drugs containing polymeric particles, plain drug particles, solute-containing liposomes, and inclusion complexes of drug and carrier have been formulated using this technology. Also, polymer separation using this technology is enabling the selection of a pure fraction of a polymer, thereby allowing a more precise control of drug release from polymeric delivery systems.