The purpose of this funding opportunity is to support research relevant to topical semisolid drug products that will help elucidate the relationship between a product's quality attributes and its functional properties.
A specific purpose is to elucidate how characterizations of the arrangement
of matter, including rheological characterizations (e.g., texture analysis, tribology) may correlate with and/or be predictive of sensorial differences perceived by human subjects (or patients).
Upon the successful completion of this research, it should be possible to predict, based upon product quality characterizations, whether test and reference products that may be compositionally different are likely to have a comparable look and feel, including comparable perceptions of grittiness, silky-smoothness, and cooling sensation.