When formulating a drug to propose a novel drug delivery system, it is essential to investigate the presence of a bond between drug and polymer. ATR-FTIR spectra F5 and F6 with pure ibuprofen sodium showed main peaks of drug and no significant shifts of peaks which confirms that drug was incorporated within films. Drug morphology and particle size used to affect drug dissolution profile once formulated (22,52). DSC results obtained (Fig. 3) highlighted that PVA and ibuprofen sodium were maintained in crystalline forms. DSC thermographs of ibuprofen sodium showed a sharp endothermic peak at 101°C, and this was assigned to the melting of ibuprofen sodium crystals (53). These findings suggest that ibuprofen sodium solid state was unchanged during the formulation process by the presence of polymers showing lack of strong interactions between drug and polymers within the solid dispersion (54). Baek et al. conducted a study using an ibuprofen-loaded solid dispersion and also found that ibuprofen remained in an unaltered crystalline state after being incorporated within polymers (54). Drug remaining in a crystalline state is vital when formulating a solid microcrystalline dispersion due to the crystalline state being a thermodynamically favored state which makes it more stable than the amorphous state (55). The amorphous state has higher internal energy which can lead to higher dissolution rates but lower stability in terms of shelf-life and dissolution study reproducibility (56). However, not all studies have found results which support enhanced dissolution rate of the amorphous state. For instance, Jensen et al. found that crystalline carbamazepine had a faster dissolution rate than the amorphous form of carbamazepine (56). These conflicting results may be due to the unstable nature of amorphous compounds which can lead to recrystallization back into the crystalline state during storage or processing (57). This results in a loss of dissolution and solubility advantage of the amorphous state. Mainly, an amorphous dosage form of ibuprofen sodium was proved to have long-term stability issue and alteration of dissolution profile as determined by Mantas et al. (58).