Spray drying in pharmaceutical industry is a versatile and efficient technology that transforms liquid feeds into dry powders in a single step. It enables enhanced drug solubility, precise particle engineering and stabilisation of sensitive compounds. Used for solid dispersions, inhalable drugs and biologics, spray drying plays a key role in modern drug development.
What is spray drying and how does it work?
Spray drying is a continuous, scalable process that converts a liquid formulation into a fine powder. It achieves this by atomising the liquid into tiny droplets, which are rapidly dried by a hot gas stream. The process is highly controllable, allowing us to “cultivate powders” with tailored properties—from particle size to morphology and stability.
Here’s how it works in practice:
- Feed preparation: The liquid feed can be a solution, suspension or emulsion, typically containing the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and excipients.
- Atomisation: The liquid is sprayed into a drying chamber via a specialised nozzle or rotary atomiser, creating fine droplets.
- Drying: These droplets are exposed to a controlled stream of hot gas (often nitrogen or air), causing instantaneous evaporation of the solvent.
- Separation: The resulting solid particles are collected, typically using cyclones or filters.
This method offers remarkable flexibility. Whether handling heat-sensitive biologics or developing advanced solid dispersions for poorly soluble APIs, spray drying allows us to engineer precise outcomes. It also adapts across scales, from lab-based milligram batches to commercial-scale kilograms.
At Cultiply, we leverage this technology across agro, pharma and biotech sectors to develop innovative formulations ready for market success.
What are the main applications of spray drying in pharma?
Spray drying serves as a powerful toolkit for modern pharmaceutical development. Its flexibility unlocks solutions to some of the industry’s toughest formulation challenges:
- Amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs)
Many APIs suffer from poor water solubility. Spray drying is the gold standard to create amorphous solid dispersions, significantly improving bioavailability. - Inhalable drugs
For pulmonary and nasal delivery, precise particle engineering is essential. Spray drying produces powders with optimal aerodynamic properties, enabling deep lung deposition. - Modified release forms
Spray drying facilitates controlled or sustained release formulations, allowing us to fine-tune how and when the drug is released in the body. - Taste masking
A key for oral dosage compliance. Spray drying encapsulates bitter APIs, producing palatable powders without compromising therapeutic performance. - Stabilising biologics
Sensitive biomolecules (peptides, proteins, vaccines) benefit from spray drying’s gentle process. It creates stable dry powders—an attractive alternative to traditional lyophilisation.
Across these applications, spray drying empowers pharmaceutical innovators to optimise drug performance, enhance patient experience and accelerate time-to-market.
At Cultiply, we harness this technology not just in pharma, but also in functional foods and nutraceuticals, delivering high-value, stable bioactive powders.
What are the advantages of spray drying in pharmaceutical formulations?
Spray drying offers multiple advantages that make it a key enabling technology in modern pharmaceutical development. Let’s explore why so many companies choose it:
- Improved bioavailability
Spray drying enables the creation of amorphous solid dispersions, enhancing solubility and improving the bioavailability of poorly soluble APIs—a major challenge in drug development. - Particle size control
The process allows precise control over particle size and morphology. This is crucial for applications such as inhalable drugs, where aerodynamic properties define efficacy. - Scalability
Spray drying is highly scalable. A formulation optimised at lab scale can be seamlessly transferred to pilot or commercial production—accelerating product development. - Alternative to freeze-drying
For sensitive biologics, spray drying is a gentler, faster and more cost-effective alternative to lyophilisation, producing stable dry powders suitable for storage and transport. - Faster time-to-market
The process is continuous and rapid, shortening development timelines—critical for getting new therapies to patients faster. - Cost-effectiveness
Compared to batch processes like freeze-drying, spray drying offers better process efficiency and lower operational costs, especially at commercial scale.
At Cultiply, we leverage spray drying to “cultivate advanced formulations” across pharma, nutraceuticals and functional foods, delivering high-performance powders tailored to each application.
What are the challenges and limitations of spray drying?
While spray drying is highly versatile, it’s not without challenges. Understanding these is key to successful application:
- High equipment and operational costs
Spray dryers require significant capital investment and ongoing maintenance, making initial setup costly—though outsourcing to experienced CDMOs mitigates this. - Process complexity
Fine-tuning parameters (feed composition, gas flow, temperature, nozzle type) demands deep process expertise. Poor optimisation can affect product quality. - Not all APIs are compatible
Certain APIs may degrade under heat or are difficult to atomise. Some require alternative formulation approaches, such as hot melt extrusion. - Solvent handling and safety
Many formulations use organic solvents. Handling these requires closed-loop systems with inert gas (nitrogen) and stringent safety controls. - Scale-up risks
Achieving consistent results across scales can be challenging. Predictive modelling and experienced process design are critical to reduce risk.
At Cultiply, we optimise each stage, from lab to production, ensuring that spray drying delivers robust, scalable and compliant formulations.
What equipment is used in pharmaceutical spray drying?
A wide range of specialised equipment supports pharmaceutical spray drying, from early-stage R&D to full-scale commercial manufacturing. Here’s a summary:
| Equipment Type | Scale | Key Features | Typical Use Cases |
| Lab-scale spray dryers | Milligrams to ~100 g | Versatile; test multiple parameters; rapid prototyping | Early formulation screening |
| Pilot-scale spray dryers | ~100 g to several kg | Mimics commercial conditions; optimises scalability | Process development & clinical batches |
| Production-scale dryers | Tens to hundreds of kg/day | Fully validated; continuous operation; GMP-compliant | Commercial manufacturing |
Critical parameters to consider when selecting equipment:
- Type of gas: Air or nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential for drying organic solvents and protecting oxygen-sensitive compounds.
- Nozzle/atomisation: Pressure nozzles, two-fluid, or ultrasonic. Each affects droplet size and powder properties.
- Scalability: The ability to replicate product attributes from lab to commercial scale is key to efficient development.
At Cultiply, we deploy state-of-the-art spray dryers, applying predictive modelling to ensure smooth scale-up and consistent product quality—whether for pharma, functional foods or advanced biotech applications.
What are the advantages of spray drying in pharmaceutical formulations?
Spray drying brings a series of strategic advantages for pharmaceutical formulations, making it a versatile technology for developing modern medicines:
- Improved bioavailability
Spray drying enables the creation of amorphous solid dispersions that enhance the solubility and bioavailability of poorly water-soluble APIs. - Particle size control
The process allows precise engineering of particle size and morphology, which is crucial for applications such as pulmonary or nasal delivery. - Scalability
From milligram-scale trials to commercial production, spray drying offers seamless scale-up, ensuring consistent quality across development stages. - Alternative to freeze-drying
It provides a gentler and faster alternative to lyophilisation, particularly for stabilising sensitive biologics and vaccines. - Faster time-to-market
Spray drying is a continuous process with short cycle times, accelerating formulation development and reducing lead times. - Cost-effectiveness
Compared to batch processes, spray drying offers lower operating costs and higher efficiency at scale—an advantage for competitive pharmaceutical markets.
At Cultiply, we “cultivate advanced solutions” by leveraging spray drying to optimise formulation performance across diverse pharmaceutical applications.
How to scale up a spray drying process: key considerations
Scaling up a spray drying process demands strategic planning to ensure robust, reproducible results. Here’s a practical step-by-step approach:
- Process modelling
Develop thermodynamic and atomisation models to predict process behaviour and define design space, minimising trial-and-error. - Small-scale validation
Conduct lab-scale spray drying runs using representative nozzles and gas profiles to mimic commercial equipment as closely as possible. - Control of critical quality attributes
Identify and monitor key parameters (particle size, moisture content, flow properties) that impact final product performance. - Equipment selection
Choose the appropriate scale-up equipment with comparable geometry and process dynamics to ensure consistent product attributes. - GMP compliance
Integrate Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) considerations early, ensuring documentation, validation and cleanability meet regulatory standards.
By applying this structured approach, at Cultiply we facilitate “lean and risk-mitigated” scale-up of spray drying processes for innovative pharmaceutical products.
Future trends of spray drying in pharmaceuticals
Spray drying continues to evolve, with several emerging trends shaping its future:
- Aseptic spray drying
New equipment designs enable aseptic spray drying, expanding its use for sterile biologics and injectables. - Biologics (peptides, mAbs)
Advances in formulation and process control now allow sensitive biologics, such as peptides and monoclonal antibodies, to be stabilised via spray drying. - Inhalable drugs
The technology’s ability to engineer particles with precise aerodynamic profiles makes it ideal for next-generation inhalation therapies. - Continuous manufacturing
Spray drying aligns with continuous processing strategies, supporting Pharma 4.0 initiatives for more agile, efficient production.
At Cultiply, we actively develop spray drying solutions that address these trends, helping clients “stay ahead in an evolving market”.
FAQs about spray drying in pharmaceutical industry
What is the difference between spray drying and freeze drying?
Spray drying is a rapid, continuous process that turns liquid into powder in seconds; freeze drying (lyophilisation) is a batch, slower process involving sublimation.
Can spray drying improve solubility?
Yes. By producing amorphous solid dispersions, spray drying significantly enhances the solubility and bioavailability of poorly soluble APIs.
What types of drugs are suitable for spray drying?
Spray drying works well for small molecules, biologics, inhalable drugs, vaccines, and controlled-release formulations—provided they can tolerate brief heat exposure.
Is spray drying the right choice for your formulation?
Spray drying offers unique advantages for enhancing bioavailability, enabling new delivery forms and accelerating development timelines. However, it requires careful optimisation and expertise to deliver robust outcomes.
At Cultiply, we help you evaluate whether spray drying fits your formulation goals—from concept to commercialisation. Ready to explore its potential? Contact our team to discuss your project.
