Flarer joins the ranks of Danish company Fertin, which holds the dominant position in the market for chewing gum that delivers API's via its Medichew technology. It manufactures the lion's share of gum that deliver nicotine and other APIs for medical uses, including the GlaxoSmithKline's NiQuitin CQ and Novartis' Nicotinell.
The new chewing gum device 3TabGum claims to be an alternative to the common industry process that prevents the familiar problem of exposing the active ingredient to high temperatures.
It is obtained by direct compression and comprises of a gumcore combined with two protective layers, mainly constituted by antiadhesive excipients. In this way, only the external antiadherent layers come into contact with the punches of the tableting machine and the sticking problems, generally encountered in direct compression, are solved.
Chewing gums are increasingly being used as delivery systems for drugs, neutraceuticals, food integrators and vitamins. Its advantages include an increase in patient compliance. This is achieved as the therapeutic system is not swallowed making it suitable for children or patients with swallowing disorders.
In addition, most of the drug contained in the gum is released into the saliva and can act locally for treatment of oral cavity diseases.
The delivery of a drug via this method may have marketing advantages. For example, the re-vitalization of old products and the re-formulation of new, patented products will allow differentiation from future generic competition.
Showcasing the product at the Conference on Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPhI) meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Dr. Alberto Salini, managing director of Flarer, added the chewing gum was also a way to relieve dry mouth by stimulating salivary secretion, especially in the case of the Xerostomia (dry mouth), a symptom of certain diseases.
He did stress there were technical limits to the chewing gum technology. Depending on the nature of the API there was a limit to no more than 100mg per gum. Also in taste masking bitter drugs, depending on the dose, flavours or a microencapsulation method would be needed.
Flarer have filed an international patent for the chewing gum technology in early 2003. Salini also commented of the possibility of tailor-made formulation patents for the future.