Trends in tabletting and encapsulation technologies

Oral administration of drugs is considered to be the most important method for maximum effectiveness. In fact, pharmaceutical companies first check the probability of a particular drug in an oral dosage form. This is particularly so since oral dosage is seen as a dosage form that improves patient adherence. Tablets and capsules are the most common forms of solid oral dosage, and are widely used because of several advantages. Firstly, there is exact dose precision unlike syrups or suspensions. Secondly, tablets and capsules are capable of effectively masking the taste of drugs, which is not the case with liquid dosages. Lastly, liquids are less portable, require more space on the shelf, pallet and shippers, and turn out to be a high-cost affair in comparison to tablets or capsules that are packed in attractive blisters.

ACG Worldwide, an integrated manufacturing, packaging and R&D solution provider for the global pharma industry, is predominantly a leader in technologies associated with solid oral dosages. For over five decades now, the company has been persistently raising the bar for technological advancements to help the pharma industry develop efficacious solid dosage.

Tablets

Tablets offer the greatest capabilities of all oral dosage forms alongwith the highest dose precision and least content variability. In addition, tablets are not only the easiest and cheapest of all oral dosage forms to package and ship, but also the most cost-effective to produce.

By nature, pharma companies always press ahead for increasingly cost-efficient tabletting technologies. However, they don’t lose focus from the most critical factors like productivity, reliability, flexibility, safety and yield. In addition, the solution provider’s capability to offer on-time service support proves to be an important deciding factor.

Current tabletting trends and ACG’s innovations

Although the operating principle and fundamental design of a rotary tablet press has remained unchanged for the last few decades, pharma machinery manufacturers like ACG have made multiple machine design improvements to cater to challenging requirements of the future. Features like an interchangeable turret system, virtually tool-less design and automatic dual micro-dosing lubrication system were introduced by the company as special features a few years ago, now they are standard requirements for today’s tabletting machines.

Destiny 8100 (output: 1 million tablets per hour) has the capability to produce bilayer tablets with the help of a retrofittable kit. Pharma companies across the world are treating different ailments in a patient at the same time or administering multi-drug therapies for a single illness through bilayer tablets. They are also being considered for controlling release profiles of separate incompatible APIs or administering fixed dose combinations of different APIs.

In addition, ACG high-speed high-volume tabletting machines Legacy 6100 (output: 400,000 tablets per hour) has been at the forefront in adding Multi-Unit Particulate System (MUPS) capabilities. A recent and challenging technology, MUPS or the compaction of multiparticulates combines the advantages of both tablets and pellet-filled capsules in one dosage form. Few of the advantages of MUPS are:

• Uniform drug absorption and greater bioavailability
• Increased patient compliance
• Enjoys cost advantage of a tablet over capsules, with benefits of both
• Ideal for pharma companies looking at extending patent life or developing a product’s line extension

Pharma companies across the world are treating different ailments in a patient at the same time or administering multi-drug therapies for a single illness through bilayer tablets. They are also being considered for controlling release profiles of separate incompatible APIs or administering fixed dose combinations of different APIs.

Capsules

Capsules, the other dominant form of oral solid dosage, are elegant, portable, and easy to use as well as easy to administer. In addition, capsules are particularly beneficial for drugs with an unpleasant taste or odour. Although considered to be slightly expensive compared to tablets, capsules are economical if produced in large quantities. Tabletting process, which requires pressure to compact powder into tablet, results in high loss of costly APIs, whereas there is no such wastage in a capsule-filling process.

With branding printed on them, capsules serve as an additional layer of anti-counterfeiting while helping end-consumers in brand identification and quick recall. Besides pharma products, the nutraceutical industry is another consumer of capsules, especially those made with hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), or simply known as vegetarian capsules.

Current encapsulating trends and ACG’s innovations

About 50 per cent of new chemical entities in the pipeline are highly potent, with sales for high-potency pharma ingredients expected to take off majorly. Most of the oncology drugs, opioids, hormonal agents and prostaglandins fall under this category. This calls for development of containment capsule-filling technologies, which not only protects the environment but also the personnel handling these potent drugs. ACG’s high-containment special purpose automatic capsule-filler, SECUREFILL 12T, was built for this cause.

In addition, customised attachments for combination filling on encapsulation allows for gentle dosing of granules, pellets, powder, mini and micro tablets, capsules, and softgel, all in one capsule combination.

ACG offers a wide range of combination filling attachments, such as:

• Magazine type tablet filling attachment for standard round/capsule/oval shape tablet with fibre optic sensor based non fill detection
• Magazine type mini-tablet filling attachment with ACG vision system colour camera based non fill detection
• Disc type micro-tablet filling attachment with ACG vision system colour camera based non fill detection
• High-speed disc type micro-tablet filling attachment with ACG vision system with two-high resolution colour camera based NFD
• Capsule-in-capsule filling attachment with fibre optic sensor based NFD
• Softgel in hard gelatin capsule filling attachment with fibre optic sensor based NFD

The global pharma industry is poised for slow growth in the next few years, boosted only a little by emerging markets. Some of the major factors behind this outlook are spiralling R&D costs and longer payback period. Against such a backdrop, pharma companies look towards experienced partners like ACG Worldwide to offer best-in-class solutions as well as cost-effective methods of producing effective and affordable healthcare.