Fuji develops excipient for dissolvable tablets

The excipient, called F-Melt - Type C, could enable supplement manufacturers - who are operating in a mature market in the North America - to develop unusual differentiated products.

In addition to opening up new markets for supplements amongst consumers who are turned off by pill formats, such as children and senior citizens for example, it could also be used for novel products, and for supplements intended to be taken on-the-go.

Fuji Health Science said the technology is known as ODT, or orally disintegrating technology.

The excipient is made using a proprietary spray drying process, "creating a particle matrix that is very porous".

This allows water to be drawn through the tablet formation rapidly.

The company, a subsidiary of Japan's Fuji Chemical Industry Co, says the excipient can be dry-blended with other ingredients (including actives) to form a hard tablet.

The tablet has an excellent mouthfeel, as well as rapid disintegration.

"The beauty of this new excipient system is that it does not require any special equipment or third party proprietary involvement," said Jowell Bolivar, chief scientist.

"It allows a company to produce an orally disintegrating tablet in-house, on traditional tablet equipment."

Exicipents do not have any active function in terms of nutrition, but can be used as fillers, binders, lubricants or disintegrants - or a combination of these functions.

All the components are pharmaceutical and food grade, Fuji said, and may be used in all the major markets.

Fuji is not alone in developing new delivery formats for the nutraceutical market.

For instance, dissolvable films similar to those used for breathe-fresheners have started to make an impact on the market.

BioEnvelop said last year that it had succeeded in improving the nutritional capacity of its film-based nutraceuticals to allow for up to 80mg of active ingredients, thereby offering up further potential delivery systems for dietary supplement makers.

Delaware corporation Oral Delivery Technology (ODT) partners developed chewy delivery system for bioactive ingredients, called Actijube and Actichew.

These are described as low temperature formed matrices that "secure" the active ingredient.

The texture and appearance is similar to that of jujubes or gummi bears.

Contract manufacturer Nutrition Formulators also said in 2006 that it had developed an orally dissolving tablet.

This is claimed to give a balance between mouth-feel and hardness using a cost-effective combination of ingredients, including polyol.