A drug, such as a painkiller, should act reliably and always release the drug in a certain period of time. A decisive factor for this is the active substance content and a reproducible release kinetics. The latter depends on the structural composition of the drug, in particular on the spatial distribution and sizes of the drug particles and the formulation auxiliaries.

With a micro-CT, we can scan tablets nondestructively and in this way detail and quantify the spatial distribution and the size of the active ingredients and excipients. The following examples were measured with a SkyScan 1272. This is the analysis of the drug distribution (green) and the thickness of the coating (red). Because of this outstanding capability, micro-CT technology has become established in recent years as an indispensable tool in the development of solid formulations in the pharmaceutical industry.