Continuous Granulation Technology in Manufacturing of Solid Dosage Forms.

Traditionally the manufacturing of pharmaceutical dosage forms has been a batch-wise process and continuous processes have limited
applications in a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. However, several factors are stimulating the pharmaceutical industry to
investigate the opportunities offered by continuous processes. This production method provides an advantage towards quality assurance
as the batch can be accepted or rejected. However, the increasing demand of pharmaceutical solid dosage forms necessitates the
production of larger volumes of granules, requiring larger equipment. As all conventional machines for wet granulation (high shear and
fluidised bed granulation) can only be operated in a batch-wise manner, several attempts have been made to develop continuous wet
granulation techniques.