France's Innothera has been granted a US patent for a new formulation of iron that is suitable for chewing or sucking. Most presentations of iron are sugar-coated or have a skin that disguises their disagreeable taste.
The formulation can contain between 5mg to 15mg elemental iron per tablet, a level that is indicated in preventing or correcting conditions associated with a shortage of iron or with an iron imbalance.
The product described in the patent comprises "an iron salt, not less than two polyols, a binding agent a lubricating agent, and a flavouring agent." The polyols should make up 50 per cent or more (and preferably 75 per cent) of the total mass of the tablet. One of the polyols is xylitol, while another will be sorbitol and/or mannitol.
Elemental iron is usually delivered in the form of ferrous salts or less commonly ferric salts, which have taste problems at doses sufficient to obtain the desired therapeutic effects, i.e. of the order of several milligrams or several tens of milligrams per tablet.
The process detailed in Innothera's patent leads to a tablet that is suitable for either chewing or sucking, has a galenically acceptable formulation, is suitable for industrial-scale manufacture and stable.