Functional Excipients
Noramco & SPI Pharma Announce Availability of New Excipient Compatibility Study
Noramco and SPI Pharma recently announced they have completed work on an excipient compatibility study examining a range of options for the development of….
Esperion & Oberland Capital Announce $200-Million Agreement
Esperion recently announced a $200 million capped, tiered, revenue-based funding agreement on net revenues of bempedoic acid and the bempedoic acid / ezetimibe combination tablet.…
ABITEC Improves Solubility of Topical & Transdermal Applications With Functional Lipid Excipients
ABITEC Corporation, a global manufacturer of functional lipid excipients continues to pursue new technologies that solve various formulation challenges in the pharmaceutical market.
SPECIAL FEATURE - Excipients: Formulators Want Excipients for Solubility & Beyond
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin speaks with leading excipient companies to discuss the current role excipients are playing in continuous manufacturing, biopharma formulation, and controlled- and immediate-release delivery.
SPECIAL FEATURE - Improving Bioavailability & Solubility: Chemical & Physical Modification vs. Formulation Development
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin speaks with several leading companies to explore chemical and physical modification versus formulation development, and new technologies and techniques for improving bioavailability and solubility.
Meridian Launches New Range of Lyo-Ready PCR Mixes
Meridian Bioscience, Inc. recently announced that following the successful release of the Lyo-Ready qPCR Mix, Meridian is proud to introduce its next-generation lyophilization-ready mixes for one-step RT-qPCR.
ABITEC Corporation Launches New Versatile Excipient for Oral Dose Applications
ABITEC Corporation, a global manufacturer of specialty lipids, continues to develop products that meet the ever-evolving demands of the pharmaceutical industry.
MilliporeSigma & Roche Renew Global Distribution Agreement
MilliporeSigma and Roche recently announced they have agreed to renew their current distribution agreement for the Biochemical Reagents and Kapa Biosystems product portfolios, as well as select qPCR & Nucleic Acid Purification products.
Croda Acquires Biosector; Strengthens Pharmaceutical Offering
Croda International Plc, the speciality chemical company that creates high performance ingredients and technologies relied upon by industry and consumers globally, recently announced that it has strengthened its pharmaceutical offering by signing a definitive agreement with Brenntag Nordic A/S to acquire Brenntag Biosector (Biosector).
Fujifilm Announces Research Results for Novel Liposome Drug Candidate
FUJIFILM Corporation recently announced the drug release mechanism of continuous action in tumors for the anti-cancer agent FF-10832, currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials in…
Evonik Launches Advanced Combination Polymer; Sets New Benchmark for Enteric Coatings
Evonik, a global leader for functional excipients used in oral solid dosage forms, recently announced the launch of an advanced combination polymer for enteric coatings.
ABITEC Corporation & DKSH Announce Specialty Lipid Distribution Agreement
ABITEC Corporation, a global manufacturer of specialty lipids, has executed a multi-year agreement with distribution partner DKSH to market and sell its ingredients into select…
Biologic Excipients Market Expected to be Valued at $1.7 Billion by End of 2028
Future Market Insights (FMI) delivers key insights on the global biologic excipients market in its upcoming report titled Biologic Excipients Market: Global Industry Analysis 2013–2017 and Opportunity Assessment…
MULTIPARTICULATE SYSTEM - Advances in Lipid Multiparticulate Technologies for Controlled Release
Jaspreet Arora, PhD, Samantha Saville, and Brett Waybrant, PhD, focus on a controlled-release LMP formulation to identify optimum annealing conditions and to better understand the annealing mechanism.
SPECIAL FEATURE - Challenging Molecules Drive Developers to Get More Creative With Excipients
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin highlights the techniques various excipient manufacturers are using to develop more innovative and effective ingredients to improve the performance of drug molecules.
LIPID-BASED DELIVERY - Are Lipid-Based Drug Delivery Systems in Your Formulation Toolbox?
Jason M. LePree, RPh, PhD, reviews the causes of poor bioavailability for drugs and provides an introduction to lipid-based drug delivery systems, and how the formulation approach can be used to overcome impediments to good bioavailability of therapeutic actives.
NANOPARTICLES - A Revolution in the Development of Drug Delivery Vehicles
Tim Leaver explains how his company has developed a proprietary technology for the rapid development of nanoparticles and seamless scale-up for clinical studies and commercial production, and how it is transforming the development and manufacturing of a range of nanoparticle formulations from a hit-and-miss affair to a standardized process, accelerating novel nanomedicines from the bench to the clinic.
SPECIAL FEATURE - Wanted: New Excipients to Meet the Demands of a Challenging Industry
Contributor Cindy H. Dubin recently spoke with some of the leading excipient innovators to find out what types of excipients they are developing, the advantages they offer to formulations, and where they see the industry focusing throughout the next few years.
EXCIPIENT UPDATE - Solvent-Less Film Coatings: New Ethylcellulose Grade Enables Rapid Dry Powder Coating
Nick Grasman and Paula Garcia Todd, MS, present ETHOCEL HP as an innovative new product that helps customers increase productivity while still maintaining the advantages of Dow manufactured ETHOCEL, such as tight viscosity, narrow ethoxyl distribution, and reduced fiber content.
SOFTGEL FORMULATIONS - Lipid-Based Drug Delivery System to Bring Poorly Soluble Drugs to Market
Ronak Savla, PhD, PharmD, and Jeffrey E. Browne, PhD, indicate formulation screening, development, scale-up, and commercial manufacture of LBDDSs require considerable expertise, and choosing an outsourcing partner with experience and a proven track record is critical.
What are functional excipients?
The global pharmaceutical excipients market was valued at $7.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $11.2 billion by 2026. Functional excipients are witnessing a strong demand as companies supply a wide range of functional excipients that help manufacturers produce cost-effective, high-quality, finished pharmaceutical product. Many industry experts point to a widening demand and use of organic pharmaceutical excipients. These organic excipients include oleochemicals, petrochemicals, proteins, carbohydrates, and others. Additionally, binders and functional excipients are witnessing a strong demand. Regarding delivery route, it is the topical segment that is witnessing fast growth in the global pharmaceutical excipients market, as topical drug delivery is witnessing a significantly stronger progression because of its ability to surpass the metabolism pathways of the stomach and liver.
However, the high cost associated with the drug development process will impede the growth rate of the pharmaceutical excipients market. Additionally, strict government regulations have hindered the pharmaceutical excipients market growth. Safety, quality concerns, and lack of awareness will further challenge the market in the forecast period mentioned above.
This is particularly true for novel excipients, which do have technical, therapeutic, and commercial benefits in oral drug delivery. Despite their formulation-enhancing benefits, novel excipients are sacrificed early in development because of a lack of precedence of use.
Without an independent pathway to allow new excipients or new uses for existing excipients into drug products, except when associated with a drug filing, there are limited tools available for pharmaceutical companies to formulate better performing, and in many cases, life-saving drugs. Meanwhile, drug manufacturers are reluctant to use new excipients and take on the additional layer of scrutiny from regulatory agencies to demonstrate full excipient characterization, safety, quality, function, and appropriateness of use.
Functional Excipients and the FDA
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has acknowledged that the lack of novel excipients is indeed a problem. In September 2021, the Agency announced the Novel Excipient Review Pilot Program, which will select and review four novel excipients in the next two years using a new pathway. This will allow manufacturers to obtain an FDA review prior to the use of the novel excipient in a drug formulation.
The FDA’s recent stance and acceptance that the novel excipients are critical in development of new drug candidates, the perceptions around the novel excipients are being changed as the Agency continues to embrace the facts that the pharma industry is in dire need of new excipients for bringing the innovative drugs to the market faster. This is the first time in history that the agency is opening doors for novel excipients to be freely evaluated and used in the innovative formulations for NCEs.
Note, though, that this is not an excipient approval process; the novel excipient would still be evaluated as part of the overall drug product approval. In the next 3 to 5 years, we can expect to see an acceleration in the examination of the composition and purity of excipients.