Can You Crush Metoprolol? | HelloPharmacist

In our latest question and answer, the pharmacist discusses whether or not metoprolol tablets can crushed.

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Question

Hi, I have a question. Can you crush metoprolol tablets?

Asked by Daiph
On Jun 22, 2022

Key points

• There are two different forms of metoprolol available, metoprolol succinate and metoprolol tartrate.
• Metoprolol tartrate can be crushed while metoprolol succinate (an extended-release product) cannot.

Hello and thanks for reaching out!

The answer to this depends on which form of metoprolol you are talking about, as it is available as:

• Metoprolol tartrate
• Metoprolol succinate

Metoprolol tartrate is an immediate-release version of the drug while metoprolol succinate is the extended-release version.

Which Can You Crush?

Metoprolol tartrate (generic for Lopressor) can safely be crushed. Doing so will not alter how the medication works

Metoprolol succinate (generic for Toprol XL) on the other hand, cannot be crushed as it is an extended-release product. Doing so will destroy the extended-release mechanism, causing all of the medication to be released at once.

Interesting enough, metoprolol succinate can be split and is scored (i.e. has a break line in the middle of the tablet). This is uncommon among extended-release drugs and metoprolol succinate is one of the few extended-release drugs where splitting is okay.

Metoprolol succinate can be split due to how the extended-release mechanism works. Each tablet contains contains a number of small controlled release pellets, which are evenly dispersed throughout the tablet. This can be seen in the image below.

Each pellet acts as their own delivery device, and splitting the tablets will not destroy them. For this reason, the tablet can be split. However, as mentioned, the tablets cannot be crushed, as doing so will destroy these pellets.

Final Words

Thanks again for your question!

I hope this answer helped.

Please feel free to reach out to us again in the future.

References

• 
  Metoprolol Monograph,
  PubChem
  
• 
  Toprol XL prescribing Information,
  AccessFDA
  
• 
  Lopressor Prescribing Information,
  AccessFDA
  

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Tablet splitting: Product quality assessment of metoprolol succinate extended release tablets

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Elsevier Science

Full text links

. 2010 Nov 30;401(1-2):25-31.

doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2010.09.004.

Epub 2010 Sep 19.

Na Zhao 
¹
, Ahmed Zidan, Mobin Tawakkul, Vilayat A Sayeed, Mansoor Khan

Affiliations

Affiliation

• ¹ Division of Product Quality Research, Office of Testing and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States.

• PMID:

  20849940

• DOI:

  10.1016/j.ijpharm.2010.09.004

Na Zhao et al.

Int J Pharm.

2010.

. 2010 Nov 30;401(1-2):25-31.

doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2010.09.004.

Epub 2010 Sep 19.

Authors

Na Zhao 
¹
, Ahmed Zidan, Mobin Tawakkul, Vilayat A Sayeed, Mansoor Khan

Affiliation

• ¹ Division of Product Quality Research, Office of Testing and Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States.

• PMID:

  20849940

• DOI:

  10.1016/j.ijpharm.2010.09.004

Abstract

Metoprolol succinate extended release tablets comprise a multiple unit system containing metoprolol succinate in a multitude of controlled release pellets. Each pellet acts as a separate drug delivery unit and is designed to deliver metoprolol continuously over the dosage interval. Despite the flexibility that controlled release pellets may offer, segregation is one of the challenges that commonly occur during tableting for such drug delivery system. Since all commercial metoprolol succinate extended release tablets are scored, they are deemed suitable for splitting. The present study was aimed at utilizing an innovative technology to determine the dose uniformity for split tablets. Four marketed drug products consisting of innovator and generics were evaluated for effect of splitting on weight, assay and content uniformity. Novel analytical tool such as near infrared (NIR) chemical imaging was used to visualize the distribution of metoprolol succinate and functional excipients on the surfaces of the marketed tablets. The non-homogeneous distribution of directly compressed metoprolol succinate beads on the surface of the tablets as well as the split intersection explained the large variation in the split tablets’ weight and content uniformity results. The obtained results indicated the usefulness of NIR chemical imaging to determine the need for content uniformity studies for certain split tablets.

Published by Elsevier B.V.

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