Our results are in line, however, with surface-oriented phase separa on involving the development of the (semi-)con nuous drug rich-layer that we observed with in situ SRS imaging. Indulkar et al and Yang et al 7, 33 a ributed their observed congruent release at 20% drug loading with the lack of the development of a con nuous drug rich layer at the film-buffer interface, which they determined using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, SEM and confocal fluorescence microscopy with marker dyes. Therefore, the drug release results for both their and our studies are consistent, considering the influence of the development of a drug-rich layer at the film-polymer interface. Despite this, it was interes ng to note that we nevertheless s ll observed LLPS and nanodroplet forma on at 20%, even with the surface enrichment of the drug. This suggests that surface enrichment and LLPS are not necessarily mutually exclusive.