Pharmatrans Sanaq (founded in 1982) is today specialised in pharmaceutical excipients and novel drug vehicles such as pellets for solid dosage form design. The focus has initially been set on standard types of microcrystalline cellulose and the further development thereof.
These developments led to the neutral starter cores CELLETS®, purely made of microcrystalline celullose. Following this concept of neutral starter pellets MCELL, consisting of 100% Mannitol, complements ideally the product range of Pharmatrans Sanaq.
This successful concept of neutral pellets to be coated with a suitable drug substance has been extended to include pellets consisting of 100% drug substance. In this context the new product Ibuprofen DC 100 is the first API to be presented as a spherical core consisting of 100% Ibuprofen to overcome the sticking problems during production but also to ease coating of the Ibuprofen for taste masking in oral dispersible tablets (ODT) or extended release formulations.
Tartaric acid pellet (TAP) is now the most recent of Pharmatrans Sanaq’s portfolio of innovative products. TAP represents a functional starter core consisting of 100% tartaric acid.
Why a functional and not a neutral starter core? The pH-dependent solubility of a drug substance can be an important hurdle to overcome in extended release formulations when the drug substance shows a poor solubility in higher pH-values that occur in the lower GIT.
TAP acts as a spherical starter core to be layered with the drug substance, which is subsequently coated by an appropriate polymer film to achieve the extended release profile.
The function of TAP is the following: TAP acts as a pH-lowering agent. Thus in the case of a drug, which has a low solubility at higher pH-values, TAP is able to enhance the drug release. Indeed, poorly soluble drugs in intestinal fluids of higher pH-values may induce a poor bioavailability, which is an important problem.
Extended release formulations are the drug delivery systems of choice to improve patient compliance and play an important role in the lifecycle management of drug formulations.
TAP offers as a functional vehicle an optimal solution, which is at the same time a spherical starter core and a pH-modifier to achieve an extended release pellet formulation for drugs with a poor solubility in higher pH-values.
TAP currently exists in two different particle sizes:
- TAP 200 (100µm-350µm)
- TAP 400 (300µm-500µm)
TAP conforms with the current Ph. Eur / USP.
Please contact us for further information.