Overcoming challenges in effervescent dosage manufacturing

To improve the taste and stability of effervescent tablets and powders, BENEO presents galenIQ™ 721. This filler-binder enables pharmaceutical and nutraceutical manufacturers to target consumers that have difficulty swallowing standard tablets. As a non-hygroscopic, water-soluble and directly compressible excipient, galenIQ™ 721 also provides high content uniformity and production efficiency for effervescent applications.

Effervescent dosage forms offer distinct advantages compared with traditional tablets. For instance, many patients have problems swallowing tablets. Effervescent powders and tablets offer a more convenient way to deliver medicines or dietary supplements. They dissolve upon contact with water to release carbon dioxide and create a drink. In addition, they can be used to formulate pharmaceuticals that are difficult to digest, that cause stomach or esophageal irritation or that rely on a rapid onset of action, such as analgesics.

However, manufacturing effervescent dosage forms is often challenging. To produce highly stable tablets, a non-hygroscopic, direct compression filler-binder such as galenIQ™ 721 is needed. It ensures high content uniformity and facilitates production. BENEO’s excipient has a sugar-like taste profile, a pleasant mouthfeel and can enhance the palatability of effervescent formulations. Furthermore it is non-cariogenic and therefore is both sweet and tooth-friendly.

Dr Maj-Britt Cepok, Head of Business Development, Pharma, BENEO, comments: “Fizzy tablets are ideally suited to administer a wide range of light-, oxygen- and other sensitive active ingredients and those that require a large dose. In addition, effervescent preparations are more appealing to consumers than traditional dosage forms. galenIQ™ 721 helps manufacturers to tap into this market and enhance their development programs.”

About galenIQ™
BENEO is part of the Südzucker Group and a member of the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC). The company produces galenIQ™ (Isomalt Ph. Eur., BP, USP-NF, JP), a multifunctional range of water-soluble filler-binders according to cGMP conditions for pharmaceutical excipients. galenIQ™ is available in a wide variety of median particle sizes, morphologies and solubilities and therefore is readily used in solid and liquid dosage forms such as tablets, sachets, effervescents, lozenges and syrups. It is physically and chemically stable, non-hygroscopic and enhances the palatability of the final form.