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Added chewing value
March 2012 | The Pharmaceutical industry is experiencing the global rise in generic competition
and an important decrease in new molecules, making it increasingly Important for companies to look
for strategies that enable them to remain competitive and maintain a powerful product portfolio that
keeps profitability high.
One of the strategies is focusing on new drug delivery systems to create new products or reinvent
currently marketed ones to improve efficacy, consumer appeal and compliance.
Medicated chewing gum (MCG) stands as an opportunity for innovation with new Pharma
applications already under development. It is a particularly interesting prospect for those companies
that look to differentiate their products with a new and attractive format.
Traditionally, medicated chewing gum remained as a niche Pharma category due to its complex
formulation and manufacturing that uses hot mixing and extrusion procedures involving specific
technology and equipment that most pharmaceutical companies are not familiar with. The use of
heat in these processes prevents many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from being
considered due to their sensitivity to high moisture and temperature levels. However, a door has
opened with the launch of a new solid dose excipient developed exclusively to adapt MCG production
to pharmaceutical-standard equipment.
Consumer appeal
Many people dislike swallowing regular oral dosage forms such as tablets or capsules. Chewing gum
does not require water intake and has pleasant organoleptic properties. It also brings a rapid onset
of action due to the oral release of the API by the action of chewing. The most part of the API is
absorbed orally bringing a faster bioavailability.
Moreover chewing gum has inherent benefits that give extra value to this dosage form:
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good for oral health
improves concentration
decreases stress levels
prevents the urge to eat or somoke
All these provide positive synergies to combine with the therapeutic action of an active ingredient to
give a great performance and improve compliance for consumers.
How to use Health in Gum®
Health in Gum® is a pharmaceutical excipient produced using proprietary technology by Cafosa
(Mars/Wrigley). It is a homogeneous powder that combines Gum Base and polyols. Health in Gum®
enables formulation and dry mixing with APIs to produce chewing gums by direct compression.
This means that the formulation and production of medicated chewing gum products is now possible
without need of any extra specific equipment.
It is no longer necessary to use the traditional process involving chewing gum equipment and
technology. Health in Gum® adapts totally to oral dose pharmaceutical manufacturing.
These are drugs being marketed as medicated chewing gum - well known traditional Nicotine gums,
Motion-sickness gums and some Digestive and Oral Care products.
Now with the use of the latest direct compression technologies, this format and presentation is at
reach of the entire Pharmaceutical industry, from small local firms to large multinational companies,
so they can develop and launch their own medicated chewing gum products in an easier way, as
totally new products or as line extensions of their current ones.
New API research
In a recent internal study Cafosa measured the in-vitro release of loratadine (a common
antihistamine drug to treat allergies) from a compressed chewing gum using Health in Gum®. For
the experiment the firm used the mechanical masticator equipment for determination of drug
release for MCG, which will be officially adapted in the European Pharmacopoeia this 2012. The
results were very promising and consistent with other studies about loratadine release In chewing
gum. This performance Introduces a new therapeutic area of interest for this drug delivery system.
Additional research from external sources brought positive data for Health in Gum® with other APIs
that are also good candidates for MCG: cetirizine (an antiallergy drug) and benzydamine
hydrochloride (a local analgesic for sore throat), which demonstrated almost total release from
chewing gum after standard 30 minutes chewing time.