Content uniformity in granules for aceclofenac controlled release (CR) tablets determined using near-infrared spectroscopy and wide area illumination (WAI) Raman spectroscopy.

Non-destructive and rapid determination methods were developed for aceclofenac controlled release (CR) tablets. The tablet is composed of two layers, rapid release and controlled release (CR) layers. The pharmaceutical manufacturing process for CR granules is very critical for dissolution control of CR tablets. During processing, a rapid and nondestructive method to test content uniformity of aceclofenac granules is required. Chemometrics using near-infrared (NIR) and Raman spectroscopy have found significant uses in quantitative analysis of pharmaceutical products in complex matrixes. Most of the pharmaceutical products can be measured directly with little or no sample preparation using these spectroscopic methods. This study showed NIR and wide area illumination Raman spectroscopy with partial least squares (PLS) was very effective for the content uniformity of granules while high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), a conventional method, was time-consuming and ineffective for real time control. This study showed that on-line control of content uniformity control of aceclofenac CR tablets can be achieved using NIR and Raman spectroscopy.