Optimize Your Formulations with a Multifunctional Silica Excipient
In pharmaceutical development, every ingredient has a job to do. Even excipients – the non-active ingredients in a drug – play an essential role in a drug’s formulation and contribute to the effectiveness of the final product. However, having too many ingredients in one drug can lead to an overly complex formulation, which introduces more variability and can increase the time and cost to move it through the production process. Finding a single efficient excipient that can achieve several formulation requirements simultaneously can help enhance the performance and stability of your pharmaceutical formulations.
For optimized formulations, look for a multi-purpose excipient that can serve a wide range of applications in solid oral dosage drug forms and tablet coatings with numerous benefits.
Moisture Protection and Anti-Caking Properties
One essential feature in an excipient is the ability to provide moisture protection. Silica gel with a well-defined pore distribution and higher pore volume enables it to control trace amounts of moisture and moisture transfer, which helps keep the active ingredient dry and improves the stability of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Additionally, strong anti-caking properties are critical to prevent moisture uptake by other components of the powder formulation, ensuring that it remains free-flowing and easy to handle.
Improved Flow and Reduced Anti-electrostatic Charging
Excipients also act as glidants, which is critical for improving the flowability of a mixture. This comes into play during the manufacturing process, as it helps to avoid electrostatic charging of powder formulations, reducing the loss of APIs and minimizing variability in formulations with potent actives. It also decreases the need for sieving prior to use.
Enhanced Tablet Hardness and Reduced Friability
Compared to fumed and precipitated silica, tablets formulated with certain types of silica gel are superior in hardness, which helps with preventing breaking during processing, packaging, and transport. This not only enhances the durability of the tablets, but also decreases their friability, or the ability to maintain structural integrity. Reduced friability also helps decrease the tendency of defects occurring during manufacturing, such as capping or lamination.
Suspension Aid and Anti-Tacking in Tablet Coatings
Your choice of excipient should serve as an effective suspension aid in order to improve stability and prevent the blockage of valves and spraying nozzles. Good anti-tacking properties help reduce the interaction between coated tablets, creating a micro-structured surface that enhances the overall quality of the coating.
Flavor Absorption and Stabilization
Another characteristic to look for is the ability to absorb liquid flavors while improving oxidation stability. This capability helps retain the formulated flavor and mask the bitter taste of APIs, making the medication more palatable for patients.
Finding a versatile and multifunctional excipient offers numerous benefits for pharmaceutical formulations. From moisture protection, flow, anti-caking properties, enhancing tablet hardness, to oxidation stability, the right excipient can help improve the handling, absorption, and dissolution of a variety of pharmaceuticals. Explore SYLOID® 244 FP mesoporous silica from Grace.