Traveling throw the world by Zoom: a review of Online SEP Mixer Torque Rheometer as an application tool of Quality by Design (QbD) in the

TRAVELING THROUGH THE WORLD BY ZOOM: A REVIEW OF ONLINE SEP

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The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted countless projects and opportunities in multiple contexts, this paralysis occurred to reduce the transmission rates and deaths by the virus. However, this scenario promoted the emergence of new methods to maintain current activities, and the Student Exchange Program (SEP) is included on this trend.

Despite the borders being closed, the program continued evolving, since countries such as Indonesia, Japan, and Peru held live events with future exchange students aiming to expand their respective cultures and maintain their influence.

One of the activities common to all these events was the game

“Kahoot!” , which consists of a quiz developed by the local SEP Team where all participants can engage simultaneously and answer questions, with a mix of fun, competitiveness, and learning. Also, in the online meeting platform, splitting the participants in groups and creating multiple conversation circles created a greater interaction between everyone connected.

Even though there was a language barrier, the willingness of the local SEP Team to solve problems and resolve all doubts was incredible. Furthermore, this obstacle did not restrict the fluidity of the conversation groups and discussion of interesting topics. Besides, the activities held before the discussion made participants more relaxed.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the development of alternative ways to maintain current projects. Aside that, the experience acquired during this period does not need to be restricted to alarming situations such as a pandemic. These events may occur even after these difficult times, with the same purpose, promote SEP.

MIXER TORQUE RHEOMETER AS AN APPLICATION TOOL OF QUALITY BY DESIGN (QBD) IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL GRANULES

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It is widely known that the development of solid pharmaceutical forms is a very challenging process for the pharmaceutical industries, which face obstacles in the development of effective solutions to problems that affect the quality of their formulations. In the case of solid dosage forms, constituted mainly of powders, the major setbacks are related to the management of the drug, which generally presents low density, deficient flow properties and insufficient degrees of compaction, making it necessary to submit the materials in question to some type of processing.

Usually, the process chosen is granulation, which consists of the agglomeration of small powders particles resulting in new particles of larger size, greater strength, and varied porosity, allowing the material compression and formulation of complex products, such as granules, extruded and pellets (SURESH et al., 2017). This process can be carried out both dry and wet ways. When the wet way is chosen, there is the addition of a binder solution, promoting the formation of agglomerates with adequate strength, due to the combination of viscosity and capillarity forces, ensuring that the components of the mixture will not separate after drying process (ENNIS, 2016). However, in this process it is essential to determine the granulation endpoint, that is, to establish the most appropriate amount of binder to be added, which requires a lot of knowledge and experience on the part of the formulator.

One of the most traditional ways of reaching the granulation endpoint is by the hand squeeze test, however, it as an empirical parameter and can suffer inter-individual variations, besides to requiring large amounts of raw material (HANCOCK; YORK; ROWE, 1994; SAKR et al., 2012; ZHANG; LAMBERTO, 2014). As an alternative, the literature demonstrates the development of several techniques based on the powder rheology, which make the process more rational and scientific, such as the measurement of wet mass torque through the Mixer Torque Rheometer (MTR), by which an average torque intensity curve is obtained as a function of the amount of binder added, configuring the rheological profile of the sample. This profile includes the pendular, funicular, capillary, and droplet steps, corresponding to the degree of particle agglomeration (Figure 2), allowing, therefore, the determination of the amount of liquid necessary for the granulation of the material in a precise way (HANCOCK; YORK; ROWE, 1994; SAKR et al., 2012; ZHANG; LAMBERTO, 2014). Figure 1. Mixer Torque Rheometer (MTR-3, Caleva, Reino Unido)