Guest guest Posted July 5, 2010 Report Share Posted July 5, 2010 HI Everyone, I am a pharmacist who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for years and my husband also has a PhD in drug development and considered an expert in his field. The only reason I am saying this is because people don't realized (physicians either, sorry not their field!) about content uniformity in drug manufacturing. If the tablet does NOT have a score mark, drug uniformity does NOT have to be evenly dispersed on both sides of the tablet. What physicians and others don't realize either is the tablet is mostly made of fillers and glidants to make the tablet compressible and not stick to the high speed tablet punches and dyes. The amount of active ingredient compared to excipients is normally very small. Our bodies are also not exact in metabolism. Just keep this in mind when you are cutting a really small tablet in fourths. If there is no score mark it is conceievable that 1/4 of that tablet contains no active ingredient. The effort and the risk of you loosing tablet " crumbs " in " mangling " the tablet may not be worth it. I am not saying don't do it, just be aware of what you are doing. If you are cutting a tablet to split a dose 3-4 times over a 24 hour period, it probably isn't worth it and you would get the same effect with less cuts depending on the half life of the drug. Now, I know in the Paxil case, you only get a 1/4 tablet a day and that is a little different. The point being, the less you can get into cutting, the more consistent the dosing. Sometimes physicians go overboard- like prescribing 1.3 tablets- while the math may be correct when calculating weight per dosage, that is a guide and the way we each metabolize drugs is not that pure and exact- many things effect absorption and how that drug compartmentalize. Trying to get a 0.3 tablet is not practicle nor will it make a difference. Dry product dosage forms are not like parenterals (IV's) where solutions are uniform and go directly into the blood stream. So, if you are getting frustrated creating tablet dust you may want to consider all these factors and the half life of the drug. :} For instance, especially with Valtrex which is given usually three times a day, you can probably come close to the dose by keeping whole tablets and still keep even distribution. These drugs are very expensive and you just want to make sure your child is really getting the drug. If there is no score mark and you disrupt the integrity of the tablet, be aware of your dose. Valtrax given in my house at a dosage of 1.5 tablets twice daily would mean they would get one tablet in the morning and 2 tablets in the evening- no cutting. I guess it goes without saying no extended release tablet should ever but cut without knowing you just ruined the time release profile and dose dumping will occur. The drug industry has every conceivable expert producing drug profiles that I do cringe a little when people start cutting away because they really don't realize what they could be affecting- everything from solubility to absorption. Just be practical and use common sense! OK, Pharmacy hat off now, and back to mom. Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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