Catalent licenses taste-masking technology
pharmafile | October 22, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Catalent, taste
Catalent Pharma Solutions has licensed a new taste-masking technology that can make “even the most challenging, unpleasant and bitter tasting active pharmaceutical ingredients palatable”.
The technology was developed by researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) headed by Professor Rajesh Davé, and is said to be suitable for a wide variety of formulations including granules/sachets, sprinkles, chewables, effervescent and oral dispersible tablets.
Under the terms of the licence, Catalent will complete transfer of the technology into its cGMP facilities to support the manufacture of novel dosage forms such as its Zydis fast-dissolve platform.
Catalent said it has already produced the first feasibility samples using the taste-masking system, and the firm’s senior vice president of R&D Kurt Nielsen said the project has ‘exceeded our expectations’.
Catalent’s Zydis process produces freeze-dried, oro-dispersible doses that disperse in the mouth with no water needed, and has already been applied to more than 20 pharma products. The company says Zydis is useful for drugs needing pre-gastric absorption, and can help improve patient compliance with drug regimens.
Fast-dissolve products are useful because they can allow compounds to be absorbed through the lining of the mouth – potentially allowing drugs to exert their effects more quickly and improving compliance.
The taste of a compound becomes a major consideration when developing products that are absorbed through the mouth. This technology will allow development of new dosage forms with the potential to deliver significant advantages to our customers and benefits to patients and consumers, said Nielsen.
“Taste-masking of fine drug particles has remained an unmet technical challenge for formulators,” added Davé.
“Through funding from Catalent we have been able to leverage our expertise to innovate technology and processes that allow for these materials to be cost effectively coated and taste-masked,” he said.
Davé recently published an article in the International Journal of Drug Development & Research which described the use of taste-masking technology in the development of an oro-dispersible formulation of the antihypertensive drug perindopril.
Phil Taylor
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