Hot embossing and mechanical punching of biodegradable microcontainers for oral drug delivery

A process has been developed to fabricate discrete three-dimensional microcontainers for oral drug delivery application in Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA) polymer. The method combines hot embossing for the definition of holes in a PLLA film and mechanical punching to penetrate the polymer layer around the holes, after filling them with drug. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of microcontainers with a diameter of 340 mu m and a height of 50 mu m. The process is temperature benign so that the compositional integrity of the drug is preserved. It also provides a good flexibility for creating different sizes and shapes of micro-containers. Finally, the process is compatible with roll-to-roll processing that could lead to low cost high volume production. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.