The Hands-on Course in Tablet Technology
is a postgraduate educational program offered by the Pii Center for Pharmaceutical Technology. It provides an extensive review of conventional and advanced manufacturing technologies, including hot-melt extrusion, used to develop a variety of novel delivery and continuous manufacturing systems. The course, initiated in 1998, has trained over 2,000 attendees.
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Learn More about the 2025 Tablet Course
The Hands-on Course in Tablet Technology, a post-graduate educational program offered by the Pii Center for Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, provides an extensive overview of conventional and advanced manufacturing technologies, including hot-melt extrusion, that is used to develop a variety of novel dosage forms.
Experts from industry and academia present lectures and supervise laboratory assignments that provide an in-depth overview of the development, manufacturing, and quality control of solid oral dosage forms. Lectures explore the concepts involved in designing tablet formulations and manufacturing processes using QbD principles, from selecting excipients based on preformulation data to regulatory strategies for making post-approval changes to the formulation and/or manufacturing process for NDA/ANDA drug products.
The laboratory portion of the course is designed to provide attendees with practical, hands-on experience in unit operations discussed in lecture sessions. Laboratory sessions include hands-on experience conducting pre-formulation studies, preparing powder blends and granulations (e.g., hot-melt extrusion and high shear granulation), manufacturing tablets (e.g., instrumented tablet press, 3D printing, and tablet coating operations), and conducting in-process and quality control release tests.
The course, initiated in 1998, has trained over 2,000 attendees, including scientists and engineers working in formulation development, process development, manufacturing, analytical method development, and quality control, and sales and marketing professionals from the pharmaceutical, dietary supplement, animal health, and food industries. Other attendees have been from excipient and equipment suppliers and regulatory authorities, including the FDA and Health Canada.
LAB 1 – Preformulation
Evaluate properties of a pharmaceutical API, powders, and polymers utilizing:
- Particle surface area analysis
- Porosity analysis
- Particle size and shape analysis
- Density analysis
- Moisture adsorption/desorption isotherms
- Texture analysis
- Thermogravimetric analysis
- Differential scanning calorimetry
LAB 2 – Granulation and Extrusion/Spheronization
Processing of a pharmaceutical API and excipients to form granules and extrudates by:
- High shear mixing and wet granulation
- Low shear mixing and wet granulation
- Extrusion/Spheronization
- Fluid bed drying
LAB 3 – Tableting
Evaluate excipient/drug compressibility and compressibility of wet granulated vs. direct compression tablet formulations utilizing:
- Instrumented single punch tablet press
- Instrumented rotary tablet press
- Equipment to monitor weight, thickness, and breaking strength of tablet compacts
- Software to determine scalability from small to large-scale production presses
LAB 4 – Hot Melt Extrusion, 3D Printing and Tablet Evaluation
Evaluate processing of hot melt extruded forms using:
- Hot melt extruder
- 3D Printing
Perform tests to evaluate quality control attributes of tablets using:
- Tablet dissolution apparatus, real-time and interval drug release testing
- Tablet disintegration testing
- Tablet friability testing
LAB 5 – Fluid Bed Granulation/Particle Coating and Tablet Pan Coating
Evaluate granulation of an API/excipient blend and film coating of non-pareil particles using:
- Fluid bed granulator/Wurster particle coater
Pan coat tablets using:
- Side-vented tablet coating pan
| Tablet Course | |
| Mr. Kapish Karan | Ashland |
| Dr. Robert Marion | Consultant |
| Dr. Stuart Porter | Consultant |
| Dr. Chris Rainey | Consultant |
| Dr. Mike Rankin | Consultant |
| Dr. David Wiggins | Consultant |
| Mr. Ryan Crawford | Freund-Vector |
| Mr. Garrett Alfred | Freund-Vector |
| Mr. Tim Smith | Freund-Vector |
| Mr. Ed Godek | Glatt |
| Ms. Alva Godfrey | LCI |
| Mr. Nicolas Monroe | Micromeritics |
| Mr. Charles Hicks | LCI |
| Mrs. Lauren Petraglia | LCI |
| Dr. Kerry Johanson | Material Flow Solutions |
| Dr. Greg Thiele | Micromeritics |
| Mr. Tony Thornton | Micromeritics |
| Mr. Robert Sedlock | Natoli |
| Mr. John Sturgis | Natoli |
| Dr. Carmen Popescu | Roquette, Inc. |
| Mr. Mark Rice | SMITMC |
| Mr. Mike Buckley | Sotax |
| Ashland | Wilmington, DE |
| BASF Pharma Ingredients and Services | Tarrytown, NY |
| Colorcon | West Point, PA |
| Distek Inc. | North Brunswick, NJ |
| Dow Chemical U.S.A. | Midland, MI |
| Evonik, Inc. | Piscataway, NJ |
| Fitzpatrick Corporation | Elmhurst, IL |
| Foremost the USA | Baraboo, WI |
| Gattefossé USA | Paramus, NJ |
| Glatt Air Techniques, Inc. | Ramsey, NJ |
| Hanson Research Corporation | Chatsworth, CA |
| IFF Nutrition & Biosciences | New Century, KS |
| LCI Corporation | Charlotte, NC |
| Mallinckrodt Specialty Chemicals Corporation | Hightstown, NJ |
| Micromeritics | Norcross, GA |
| Moreflex, Inc. | Greensboro, NC |
| Natoli Engineering | St. Charles, MO |
| pION | Woburn, MA |
| Quest International | Hoffman Estates, IL |
| Roquette America | Keokuk, IA |
| Sartorius Corporation | Edgewood, NY |
| SMI, Specialty Measurements Inc. | Lebanon, NJ |
| Sotax | Hopkinton, MA |
| SPI Polyols, Inc. | Wilmington, DE |
| Surface Measurement Systems | Allentown, PA |
| Texture Technologies | Marietta, GA |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific | Waltham, MA |
| Freund-Vector Corporation | Marion, IA |
Travel
The cost of one round-trip shuttle is $145 per person, and the cost of a one-way shuttle is $95 per person. To book a round-trip shuttle, flight information for both travel dates is required at the time of booking. Payment is required prior to your first shuttle with either a VISA or MasterCard.
Shuttle requests should be made at least (6) business days before the date of travel to ensure a shuttle is available. Use the Memphis Airport Shuttle Request Form to make your transportation request. Further information can be found at the Ole Miss Outreach website. For questions, please email shuttle@olemiss.edu or call the office at 662-915-5132.
Shuttles will be confirmed via e-mail. Please meet your shuttle driver inside the airport and nearby Baggage Claim, Area B escalator.
Lodging
*For discounted room rates, please click the links below.*
The Inn at Ole Miss
Courtyard Marriott Oxford
Participants are responsible for making their own room reservations. The Inn at Ole Miss and Courtyard Marriott in Oxford have reserved block rooms for Tablet Course participants. The Inn at Ole Miss is on campus, close to on-campus lecture and laboratory facilities. The Marriott is located adjacent to the University of Mississippi campus at 305 Jackson Avenue East, also close to campus facilities.
Reservations at either of the referenced hotels should be confirmed 2-3 weeks before the course to receive the reduced rates.
Area
The city of Oxford, Mississippi, offers something for all music, food, literary and art interests. Learn more at the Visit Oxford website.
Special Accommodations
Contact Le’Tosha James for special accommodations at the course
Email: ljjames@olemiss.edu
Phone: (662) 915-7341
Fax: (662) 915-1177
2025 Advanced Course in Tablet Technology
The Pii Center for Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy is proud to partner with Ashland Specialty Ingredients to offer the Advanced Hands-on Course in Tablet Technology. The course takes place at Ashland’s state-of-the-art Research Center in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Advanced Course, initiated in 2022, builds on the fundamental principles taught in the lecture and laboratory sessions of the Hands-on Course in Tablet Technology by providing more in-depth training in selected areas of oral solid dosage form processing and manufacturing for professionals in the pharmaceutical and related industries, including those involved in research and development, manufacturing, quality control/assurance, and regulatory compliance.
Morning lectures provide an in-depth background to the science and practice underlying the operations conducted in the laboratory sessions.
In the 16 hours of hands-on laboratory sessions, participants work in teams to manufacture and evaluate extended-release formulations for granulation, flow properties, and segregation potential, tablet compression and compaction simulation, coating performance, continuous manufacturing, hot-melt extrusion processing, and conformance to target release rates/IVIVC evaluation.
The Advanced Course is designed for professionals with a fundamental understanding of the science of tablet technology who wish to gain more knowledge and experience in advanced areas of design and practice.
LAB 1 – Powder Characterization
Evaluate properties of prototype and participant-designed formulations for:
- Flow
- Compression properties
- Particle Size Distribution
LAB 2 – Twin Screw Granulation
Manufacture granulations via the twin-screw process
- Evaluate the effects of equipment parameters on processing
- Manufacture formulations as part of the statistical design of experiments (DOE)
LAB 3 – Compression
Evaluate processing (flow and compressibility) of prototype and participant-designed formulations.
- Effects of formulation components
- Granulated vs direct compression formulations
LAB 4 – Physical Evaluation and Dissolution
Perform analyses to evaluate tablet characteristics
- Tablet physical characteristics
- Tablet hydration and release mechanisms
- Set up automated dissolution to evaluate drug release over 12 hours
LAB 5 – Hot Melt Extrusion
Evaluate processing of hot melt extruded material
- Effect of excipients
- Effect of process/equipment parameters
LAB 6 – Tablet and Bead Coating
Examine modified-release applications of applied coatings using
- Tablet pan coating equipment
- Fluid-bed bead coating
LAB 7 – Compaction Simulator Studies
Utilize a compaction simulator for
- Troubleshooting tablet capping
- Comparing expected performance between commercial compression machines
- Manufacturing prototype bilayer tablets
LAB 8 – Continuous Processing
Evaluate continuous mixing operation followed by high-speed compression
| Dr. Thomas Dürig | Ashland |
| Mr. Bruce Kinsey | Ashland |
| Mr. Kapish Karan | Ashland |
| Mr. Garrett Alfred | Freund-Vector |
| Dr. Carl Allenspach | Bristol Meyers Squibb |
| Dr. Delphine Ach-Hubert | Medelpharm |
| Mr. Quentin Boulay | Medelpharm |
| Mr. Bruno Leclercq | Medelpharm |
| Dr. Adrien Pelloux | Medelpharm |
| Dr. Robert Meyer | Merck & Co. |
| Mr. Stephen Post | Leistritz Extrusion Technology |
| Mr. Andrew Birkmire | GEA Systems |
| Mr. Frank Witulski | Merck & Co. |
| Dr. Hemlata Patil | Catalent Pharma Solutions |
| Dr. James Stevens | Korsch America |
| Dr. Sol Jacobson | Ashland |
| Ashland | Wilmington, DE |
| Freund-Vector Corporation | Marion, IA |
| Korsch America, Inc. | South Easton, MA |
| Medelpharm | Beynost, France |
| Leistritz Extrusion Technologies | Somerville, NJ |
| GEA Systems North America LLC | Colombia, MD |
| Simulations Plus, Inc. | Lancaster, CA |
Travel
Participants are responsible for making their air travel arrangements. All lectures and laboratories will occur at Ashland Specialty Ingredients’ Center of Excellence in Wilmington, Delaware. Travel distance from Philadelphia International Airport to the site is approximately 25 miles.
Lodging
Participants are responsible for making their room reservations. The Doubletree by Hilton, Wilmington Concord Pike, offers an Ashland-negotiated rate for those attending the course. Please call the hotel (302-478-6000) and mention the Ole Miss Tablet Course at Ashland Specialty Ingredients to secure the discounted rate. The hotel is approximately 10 miles from the course facility.
Area
Wilmington, Delaware, is a city rich in history featuring a unique mixture of old and new. Detailed information can be found at the City of Wilmington’s website.
Special Accommodations
Contact Dorothy Tunstall for special accommodations for the course.
Email: drtunstall@ashland.com
Phone: (302) 995-3201