Cargill updates industry on portfolio innovations

Cargill has recently announced a number of innovations connected to its range of polyol excipients.

The company has launched an innovation using Zerose erythritol, a tabletting excipient with taste-masking properties. Using Zerose as a diluent, Cargill developed a new wet granulation process that enables chewable tablets with excellent hardness to be manufactured. The process is also suitable for moisture-sensitive actives as it uses Cargill's C*PharmIsoMaltidex isomalt as a binder, which being non-hygroscopic, enables the production of tablets with a very low hygroscopic profile.

In a press statement, Liesbeth Meeus, Pharma & Personal Care Application Center Leader for Cargill Pharma, said: “Low hygroscopocity is an important feature in most pharmaceutical applications and particularly in hotter climates where moisture absorption can become problematic. This combination of excipients provides an ideal solution to the problem of delivering effective levels of bitter or unpalatable actives, in a compact, chewable, pleasant tasting tablet with reduced packaging requirements.”

Cargill has also revealed a new cost-effective way to use C*PharmIsoMaltidex isomalt as a diluent-binder excipient in wet granulation. According to a company press statement, avoiding the need for a separate binder will "make strong business sense for pharma companies working on oral dosage forms".

Finally, the company launched a new crystalline pharma grade of maltitol, C*PharmMaltidex CH, which is suitable for developing improved coatings on, for example, medicated chewing gum.

According to the company, the innovations were very well received at this year's CPhI trade show in Madrid (Spain).

"This year’s CPhI went very well for Cargill, with a great deal of interest shown in our new developments by those attending," Meeus explained to Pharmaceutical Technology Europe. "Once again the exhibition demonstrated its value for us as a showcase for our products and developments."

She also added: "Our decision to focus on three specific areas — improving the performance of Zerose erythritol as an excipient; introducing C*PharmIsoMaltidex isomalt for another pharma application; and adding a new pharmaceutical grade of C*PharmMaltidex crystalline maltitol &151; seemed to be the right one, as we received solid expressions of interest from potential customers which we are following up."

www.cargill.com