Cost-saving excipient to land by year-end
Dow Pharma’s ‘Controlled Release Alliance’ with Colorcon is planning global commercial availability of its Methocel DC2 polymer by year end.
The group is finalising the installation of its new manufacturing line in the US, where the exipient will be produced.
“We are strongly committed to helping drug companies save time and money in tablet production with our innovative and reliable solutions,” said Christophe Massip, global marketing director, Dow Pharma & Food Solutions. “Methocel DC2 has garnered tremendous interest from the day it was launched and we are thrilled to move forward into commercialisation so decisively to realise the full potential of this innovation,” he added.
Methocel DC2 polymers are pure, pharmacopeial HPMC and facilitate roller compaction and direct compression. Designed as a replacement for wet granulation in matrix tablet production, the technology has been shown to save as much as 60 percent in manufacturing costs, while reducing waste and shortening development time, claims Dow. Direct compression methods may also create formulation options for heat- and moisture-sensitive APIs.
“The designed morphology of METHOCEL DC2 notably improves the flow and processability of powder blends to be compressed to matrix tablets,” said Dr. True Rogers, Technologies Leader for Dow Pharma & Food Solutions. “By improving flow, our next generation METHOCEL DC2 polymeric excipient helps the drug product manufacturer produce higher quality tablets using streamlined manufacturing processes. In multiple model formulations, we have demonstrated higher reproducibility in tablet weight and tensile properties with dependable unit-dose uniformity of API content from tablet-to-tablet.”
“Colorcon is perfectly positioned to bring this latest innovative solution to the market and help our customers to shorten development time and reduce manufacturing cost. Through the Controlled Release Alliance, Colorcon and Dow bring joint resources to accelerate pharmaceutical product development efforts and reach markets throughout the world” said Shannon Kelly, General Manager for the CR Alliance at Colorcon.