Our News Bureau – Mumbai
Ideal Cures has received US patent number 8,123,849, relating to aqueous film coating composition based on sodium alginate for application in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical – tablets, caplets, pellets and granules. Inventive composition provides elegant glossy prompt release coating which does not retard release of active ingredient from the coated substrate. As per company’s official released press release this is the first time an Indian pharma excipient manufacturing company has been granted US patent on ready-to-use film coating composition.
The patent covers the technology of a coating composition comprising sodium alginate with 20 per cent recon level, which will result in saving of up to 40 per cent coating time for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry as compared to compositions based on hydroxy-propyl-methyl-cellulose.
The technology will provide an excellent opportunity to pharma and nutraceuticals industry worldwide to get rid of organic solvents like IPA and methylene chloride which are toxic to environment and coating operators. This technology will protect tablets from moisture, sunlight, and other atmospheric conditions. Technology would also be a great help for the nutraceutical industry looking for use of gras status products in their formulation.
Addition of colours in the composition will have a distinct advantage of creating brand identification for the user as well as smoothness in the finish would be helpful for easy passage of tablets in oesophagus more particularly for bigger tablets.
The company has also filed a patent application based on a Sodium Alginate for a programmed timed release of active ingredients with pre-determined lag period. This is highly useful to active ingredients which are sensitive to acidic pH and degradation in stomach.
Suresh Pareek, Managing Director, Ideal Cures emphasised that ‘849 technology will provide an excellent opportunity to nutraceuticals industry to comply with the gras status film coating systems worldwide. “While the others have been struggling to develop a coating composition based on natural polymer which will qualify for gras status, we are bringing tomorrow’s technology today. It definitely moves the bar ahead for the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the labs again,”
he said.