BASF improves tablet strength
increasing the hardness of pharmaceutical tablets and reducing the
manufacturing costs associated with damaged and broken tablets.
Kollidon VA 64 Fine is a refinement of BASF's existing product, Kollidon VA 64, and is based on the polymer copovidone, but with a significantly smaller particle size.
The polymer promises to improve dry binding capacity due to its plasticity, small particle size, high porosity and spherical shape.
The company has developed this product to allow increased mechanical stability of pharmaceutical tablets by increasing the tensile strength of the tablet cores
Increased stability provides improved protection during tablet handling and transport, and thus tablets are less susceptible to breakage and abrasion.
Breakage and damage while processing and transporting tablets is a big issue for pharmaceutical manufacturers, according to BASF.
In addition, the company believes the new binder will help to optimise its customers' production processes.
"Our goal was to design an excipient that can be used for both direct compression and roller compaction," says Dr. Tim Bölke, director strategic marketing, pharma solutions.
"Kollidon VA 64 Fine now makes this possible, allowing manufacturers to reduce production process times for solid oral dosage forms. This optimises the entire production process and helps our customers to save costs," Bölke said.
Previously, BASF's excipients could only be used in direct compression. Other companies, however, are already marketing excipients that can be used in both methods.
Direct compression describes the formation of tablets without a previous granulation step. It is based on mixing pharmaceutical actives and excipients followed by a compression step to form the tablets.
Roller compaction, or dry compaction, has become the process of choice for large-scale tablet production because of its high throughput and low costs.
This process is beneficial in terms of economy, involving less time, space, machinery and labour. Additionally, the validation and cleaning procedures are less complex and dust formation can be avoided.
