Advantages and disadvantages of different preparation methods of nanosuspension technologies [7, 13, 17, 18].
Preparation methods
Advantages
Disadvantages
Precipitation
(i) Simple process (ii) Economical production (iii) Ease of scale-up
(i) Drug has to be soluble at least in one solvent and that this solvent needs to be miscible with a nonsolvent (ii) Growing of crystals needs to be limited by surfactant addition
High-pressure homogenization
(i) General applicability to most drugs (ii) For dilute and high concentrated nanosuspensions preparation (iii) Simple technique (iv) Sterile products preparation (v) Drugs which belong to BCS CLASS II and IV (vi) Ease of scale-up and little batch-to-batch variation
(i) High number of homogenization cycles (ii) Prerequisite micronized drug particles (iii) Possible contamination of product could occur from metal ions coming off from the wall of the homogenizer (iv) Presuspension is required (v) High number of homogenization cycles
Emulsion/microemulsion template
(i) High drug solubilization (ii) Long shelf life (iii) Large-scale preparation (iv) Low cost (v) Simple manufacturing method (vi) Some organic solvents like ethyl acetate and ethyl formate can be used
(i) Used organic solvents are much unsuitable as human health cost (ii) Use of high amount of surfactant and stabilizers
Media milling
(i) Little batch-to-batch variation (ii) Ease of handling large quantities of drugs
(i) Generation of residue of milling media (ii) Time-consuming process (iii) Prolonged milling may induce the formation of amorphous leading to instability (iv) Scale-up is not easy due to mill size and weight
Dry cogrinding
(i) Easy process (ii) No organic solvent (iii) Requiring short grinding time
