Demonstrating competence in tabletting and powder technology
On the 22nd and 23rd of September was held a pharmaceutical technology workshop co-hosted by RoquettePharma and the Bonn University Pharmaceutical Institut.
The Pharmaceutical Institut of Bonn is a prominent research and development center with a yound, enthousiastic and highly skilled team, demonstrating competence in tabletting and powder technology directed by Mr. Prof. Steffens. Practical demonstrations had been offered in tableting and film-coating:
- A high speed rotary press Fette 102i was equipped with a so-called “press chamber coating” where the lubricant magnesium stearate was blown on the surfaces of the die and punches, thus avoiding the undesired effects of stearates when they are admixed to the tableting mass in the classical way.
- A special pneumohydraulic single punch press (Röltgen FlexiTab) was presented. In contrast to other machines, here the compression force can be preselected by the controller, what proved to be extremely useful for the small scale development of formulations. Furthermore double and triple layer tablets can easily be produced on this press.
- A highlight was the demonstration of the new rotary tablet press simulator STYLCAM constructed by Medelpharm, France. The simulator is capable to press one single tablet with the same parameters as on any rotary press on the world market regarding pre- and main-compression, tableting speed or dwell times.
- In the film coating division Roquette’s new coating material LYCOAT® was sprayed on tablet cores in a Hüttlin fluid bed coater and in a simple rotating pan device. Thus it was shown that this new film coating material, based on pea starch, can easily be processed in modern or in traditional coating apparatus.
- The unique properties of STARLAC® as an excipient for roller compaction were shown on a sophisticated roller compactor MACRO-PACTOR (Gerteis, Switzerland).
RoquettePharma is a worldwide Pharma ingredients supplier with an over 30 year track record in the industry. As part of the Roquette group, its carbohydrate and polyol excipients have found their way into numerous tablets, chewables, ODT’s, capsules, syrups, where they are used as compression diluents, granulation binders, superdisintegrants and molecular encapsulation.
In a different pharmaceutical segment RoquettePharma is a world leader in the production and supply of endotoxin free products for the manufacture of injectables. More recently RoquettePharma has been developing “nutraceutical ingredients” for the increasingly growing nutraceutical market.
The pharmaceutical technology workshop on “innovative ingredients for drug Formulation” was held as an open platform of discussion. In the pharmaceutical industry innovation is a key for success, but as highly regulated industry stability and reliability are also fundamental. Endeavoring innovation while expecting stability and reliability needs not be a paradox but requires early alignment between pharmaceutical technologist and providers of ingredients. The two days program enabled just that kind of exchange, where ideas where probed against the needs and constraints of these industries.
A very large participation by formulation technologists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland has shown the interest in this field. As it seems a sure sign that the pharmaceutical industry is continuing its commitment to probing new ideas, non-classical dosage forms, and finding, eventually new products and new opportunities.
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