The patent relates to a new type of capsule made from foamed film, whereby gas is blown into the film during production resulting in a film with a honeycombed structure. The voids in the film may be gas filled, empty or filled with other materials to produce specific taste-burst characteristics or to deliver active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
The light honeycombed film structure results in capsules that dissolve rapidly, releasing the capsule contents into the mouth. The capsule wall film residue also dissolves quickly with a pleasant melt-in-the-mouth sensation that the company claims is more pleasant than rival technologies based on gelatine. These are chewy and remain in the mouth long after the capsule contents have been delivered, it says.
Quick-dissolving film strips are already being used in breath freshening product introductions from Warner Lambert and Wrigley's in the USA and Europe, and Boots in the UK, as well as vitamin products. BioProgress has designs on adapting this technology for the pharma sector, and earlier this year acquired the edible film business of Florida-based Aquafilm to boost its capabilities in this area.
BioProgress believes that the primary advantage of its foam-filled approach is that it supports the delivery of drugs requiring higher individual doses than is possible in a single square of dissolve-in-the-mouth film. This is simply because the physical film volume in a small square of conventional film is too small to accommodate a large dose of drug.
The patent also covers a double chamber capsule - a technology that BioProgress is developing under the Septum banner with its conventional cellulose films - than can be made from this foamed film. This will enable two separate actives to be released simultaneously in-the-mouth.
While still used in only a minority of oral medicines - with estimated annual sales of $1.7 billion (€1.5m) in 2002 - fast-melt delivery is experiencing 40 per cent growth a year as companies turn to it to differentiate their products in the marketplace. BioProgress also has another fast-melt technology, called Soluleaves.
Graham Hind, BioProgress' chief executive, said that the company was making progress on building the capacity to work with foamed film capsules, with the preliminary machine design for their now completed.