Particle Engineering Takes Center Stage as Journal Prepares Landmark Drug Formulation Issue

The Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation has announced a special issue devoted to translational advances in pharmaceutical dosage form development, with a focus on particle engineering and formulation science. The issue, tentatively scheduled for publication in January 2027, is being assembled by three guest editors based in South Korea: Sung-Joo Hwang of Yonsei University, Min-Soo Kim of Pusan National University, and Heejun Park of Duksung Women’s University. Researchers interested in contributing have been given a submission deadline of June 30, 2026, a timeline that reflects the deliberate pace at which curated collections in pharmaceutical science are typically planned, reviewed, and finalized.

The scope of the call is broad, spanning six thematic areas that together map the current frontier of drug delivery research. These include particle engineering approaches for enhancing solubility, stability, and bioavailability; advanced formulation strategies for oral, injectable, inhalable, and transdermal dosage forms as well as advanced drug delivery systems; solid-state characterization and control; translational formulation science and the scale-up of drug products; emerging manufacturing technologies in dosage form design and commercial production; and applications of Quality by Design and Process Analytical Technology in formulation and manufacturing. Taken together, the topics trace the full journey of a medicine, from the manipulation of individual particles in a laboratory to the controlled industrial processes that put a finished dosage form on pharmacy shelves.

The emphasis on particle engineering is not incidental. A striking proportion of drug candidates emerging from modern discovery pipelines are poorly soluble in water, a property that can severely limit how much of an orally administered compound actually reaches the bloodstream. Formulation scientists respond to this challenge by engineering particles at the micro- and nanoscale, reducing particle size to increase surface area, converting crystalline materials into amorphous forms with higher apparent solubility, or coating particles with polymers that control where and when the drug is released. Each of these interventions changes not only how a drug dissolves but also how it behaves during manufacturing and storage, which is why the special issue pairs solubility enhancement with stability as linked concerns.

Solid-state science sits at the heart of this balancing act. A single active pharmaceutical ingredient can exist in multiple crystalline forms, known as polymorphs, each with a distinct arrangement of molecules in the crystal lattice and, consequently, distinct physical properties such as melting point, dissolution rate, and tendency to absorb moisture. The history of the pharmaceutical industry includes well-documented cases in which a drug product unexpectedly converted to a different, less soluble polymorph after launch, forcing reformulation or withdrawal. This is why the special issue’s inclusion of solid-state characterization and control as a standalone topic matters: identifying which form of a drug is present, understanding how it transforms under stress, and designing processes that lock in the desired form are prerequisites for any dosage form that can be reliably manufactured and approved.

The call also explicitly invites work on advanced formulation strategies across every major route of administration. Oral solid dosage forms such as tablets and capsules remain the dominant products by volume, but injectable formulations, inhalable powders and sprays, and transdermal patches each impose their own particle and formulation demands. Inhaled medicines, for example, require particles engineered to a precise aerodynamic size range so that they deposit in the deep lung rather than in the mouth or throat, while injectable biologics demand formulations that protect delicate protein molecules from aggregation during storage and injection. By covering these routes within a single issue, the editors are signaling that the underlying science of particles and formulations is a common thread that cuts across therapeutic areas and product types.

Perhaps the most distinctive word in the special issue’s title is translational. In pharmaceutical research, a formulation that performs beautifully in a beaker or a laboratory-scale granulator is of little value if it cannot be reproduced at industrial scale with consistent quality. Scale-up introduces challenges that are invisible at small volumes: mixing and drying behave differently in large vessels, heat and mass transfer gradients widen, and small process variations can amplify into meaningful differences in the final product. Translational formulation science addresses this gap by designing formulations with manufacturability in mind from the outset, and by using engineering models and pilot-scale studies to predict how a process will behave when it is multiplied a thousandfold. The special issue’s dedicated topic on scale-up of drug products places this often underappreciated discipline alongside the more glamorous science of novel delivery systems.

Two acronyms in the call, QbD and PAT, point to the regulatory and technological machinery that underpins modern pharmaceutical manufacturing. Quality by Design is a paradigm, embraced by regulators worldwide, in which product quality is built into the process by design rather than tested in afterward. Under QbD, developers systematically identify the material attributes and process parameters that affect product performance, define the ranges within which those variables can vary without compromising quality, and build that understanding into the regulatory filing. Process Analytical Technology complements this philosophy by deploying real-time sensors, such as near-infrared spectroscopy and Raman probes, directly inside manufacturing equipment, allowing operators to monitor and adjust critical parameters as a batch is being made rather than discovering problems days later in a quality-control laboratory.

The convergence of QbD and PAT with emerging manufacturing technologies is reshaping what a pharmaceutical production line looks like. Continuous manufacturing, in which raw materials flow through connected unit operations to emerge as finished tablets without the batch-based stops and starts of traditional production, depends heavily on in-line analytical tools and process models. Additive manufacturing techniques, including various forms of three-dimensional printing, are being explored to produce dosage forms with geometries and release profiles that conventional tableting cannot achieve. Hot-melt extrusion, spray drying, and supercritical fluid technologies offer routes to amorphous solid dispersions and engineered particles at commercial scale. The special issue’s topic on emerging manufacturing technologies invites contributions that describe how such innovations move from concept to validated, commercially viable production.

For the research community, the announcement represents an opportunity to consolidate a body of work that is often scattered across journals of engineering, chemistry, and pharmacy. The Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation, published by Springer, has a long-standing focus on pharmaceutical formulation and drug delivery, making it a natural home for a collection that bridges particle-level science and product-level outcomes. The guest editors’ institutions reflect the strength of the South Korean pharmaceutical sciences community in formulation research, and the January 2027 publication window positions the issue to capture work that will be well advanced by the mid-2026 submission deadline.

The broader significance of the special issue lies in what it says about the state of drug development. As molecules become more complex, with biologics, poorly soluble small molecules, and combination products dominating pipelines, the dosage form itself has become a site of genuine scientific innovation rather than an afterthought. The disciplines gathered under this call, from crystallography and nanotechnology to process engineering and regulatory science, are the tools by which a promising molecule becomes a medicine that patients can actually take, that survives its shelf life, and that delivers the right amount of drug to the right place at the right time. By framing particle engineering and formulation science as translational disciplines, the editors are underscoring a message that resonates across the industry: the path from laboratory discovery to patient benefit runs directly through the science of how drugs are made into medicines.

Subject of Research: Translational pharmaceutical dosage form development through particle engineering and formulation science

Article Title: Special Issue: Translational Advances in Pharmaceutical Dosage Form Development Based on Particle Engineering and Formulation Science

Article References: Special Issue: Translational Advances in Pharmaceutical Dosage Form Development Based on Particle Engineering and Formulation Science. (n.d.). Original publication

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Keywords: particle engineering, formulation science, drug delivery, bioavailability, solid-state characterization, Quality by Design, Process Analytical Technology, scale-up, pharmaceutical manufacturing, dosage forms, Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation, special issue