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BASF - Dedicated to new excipients to solve unmet formulation needs

With access to over 8,900 employees in research and development worldwide and its dedication to innovating excipients, BASF has been adding value to pharmaceutical products for many decades. Every day our technical experts and regulatory teams all over the world help you, our pharma customers to be more successful. We offer new excipients with new or better performance and help you to capture new opportunities, e.g. in formulation of your valuable new chemical entities or in life cycle management of existing drugs. Our experts listen carefully to your needs in order to translate them into new or improved excipients. We carefully watch out for the trends in the market.

Major trends in the pharmaceutical industry

Solubilization

Drug solubilization has drawn attention in recent years because large numbers of new chemical entities often fail in development due to their poor solubility and bioavailability. To circumvent these challenges and bring the compounds to the market, the pharmaceutical industry has a desire for novel solubilizers. These can provide better opportunities for poorly soluble APIs by lending better solubilization capacity than known solubilizers, having unparalleled safety and toxicological standards, and reducing time and cost in the drug development process. BASF is offering the broadest portfolio of solubilizers in the industry based on different chemistries. The portfolio includes Soluplus, Solutol HS 15, Cremophor grades and others.

Hot melt extrusion

Hot melt extrusion (HME) technology has gained a significant interest in recent years. Even though this technique has been used in the plastics and food industries for decades, it is relatively new in the pharmaceutical industry, and only a few drug products based on polyethylene glycol (e.g. Lutrol E) or copovidone (e.g. Kollidon VA 64) are currently available on the market. HME technology shows numerous benefits over traditional methods, including shorter processing times due to continuous downstream processes, environmental advantages due to elimination of solvents, and increased efficiency in delivery of drugs to the patient. Soluplus was especially designed for hot melt extrusion, offering unique properties. Other BASF excipients for HME include Kollidon VA 64, Lutrol F grades, Lµtrol micro, Lutrol E grades, Kollidon 12 & 17 and others.

Read more about Hot melt extrusion

Orally disintegrating tablets

Some of the advantages of oral fast-dispersing dosage forms include:

• People mobility (convenience)
• Populations are aging (ease of swallowing)
• Specific requirements for pediatric formulations (smaller tablets, safety)
• Higher drug load
• Patient compliance

These dosage forms are particularly helpful for pediatric and geriatric patients who have difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia) and also for traveling patients, for whom water may not be easily or readily accessible. Swallowing difficulty or dysphagia itself is a frequent complication of a number of diseases including stroke, Parkinson's disease and commonly associated with the progression of aging and is a major problem in the care of the elderly. Ludiflash is the product of choice to formulate efficient fast dissolving tablets. Learn more about other products recommended for excellent results in ODT formulations, such as fast disintegration and taste masking.

Cost pressure

Rising health care costs result in price cuts for pharmaceuticals. Combined with the effects of the patent cliff and high attrition rates in research and development this leads to a tremendous cost pressure for pharmaceutical companies. You can realize cost savings e.g. in instant release film-coating with Kollicoat IR and Kollicoat IR Coating Systems, as well as in direct compression with Kollidon VA 64 fine.