ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the characteristic properties of drug nanocrystals, their production, and their potential biomedical applications. It provides the characteristic properties of drug nanocrystals and the most important preparation techniques. Due to their small particle size, it is possible that drug nanocrystals are taken up by cells as solid undissolved particles. The selection and amount of stabilizer is often the crucial step for production of drug nanocrystals. Independent of the selected technique, whether top-down, bottom-up, or combination, all the techniques mentioned produce solid drug cores coated with a stabilizer layer. However, for example, particle shape, porosity, size, or level of crystallinity may differ depending on the production method and the process parameters. However, differences in product properties between small-scale experiments and large-scale production are possible due to the altered energy input and particle size reduction mechanisms. Scaling up of milling systems has been shown in many studies and also by an increasing number of marketed products.
