Formation of budesonide/α-lactose glass solutions by ball-milling

The possibility to obtain amorphous budesonide stabilised by blending with an excipient characterised by a higher glass transition temperature, namely α-lactose, has been studied. We carried out the mixing of the two compounds at room temperature by ball-milling. The four obtained blends (containing, respectively, 10, 30, 50 and 70%w of budesonide) are X-ray amorphous and exhibit a single glass transition located between the ones of pure milled crystalline compounds. This revealed that the two amorphous phases are miscible whatever the composition and sufficiently mixed to relax as a whole. Ball-milling thus appears as a powerful tool to form amorphous molecular alloys with enhanced stability properties.