Freeze-drying of protein pharmaceuticals is a procedure frequently used to obtain stability of the active pharmaceutical ingredientduring distribution and storage. It can be performed in pre-filled syringes, with a lubricous coating of silicone on the inside, to enable the piston moving. The coating changes the environment potentially affecting the features of the freeze-dried cake since the wetting behavior and adhesion to the inner wall is affected.This project aimed to investigate the effect of the siliconization of the cakes. Three different formulations were freeze-dried in nonsiliconized (NS) and siliconized vials using different siliconization protocols. Analysis was done using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA),scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and an embedding method, intended to give information about the cake’s shrinkage, cracking and pore-structure. The water content in the bottom of the cakes was consistently higher than in the top, a difference decreasing over time. Increased surface hydrophobicity lead to increased shrinkage of the cake’s volume and a decrease in fogging. The bottom of the protein cake in the vial siliconized with a commercial silicone emulsion consisted of pores with regularly equal pore size and thick pore walls, a structure not seen in any other cake. All cakes in the silicone emulsion siliconized vials had lower water content than the cakes in the vials using the other siliconization method. The XPS-analysis showed that the cakes in the emulsion siliconized vials contained silicon, indicating an excess of silicone when siliconizing and/or an unstable coating. / NextBioForm