Health in Gum
Chewing gum is an excellent alternative to
traditional drug delivery methods. Cafosa has
developed Health in Gum, to make the production
of medicated chewing gum easier, says technical
director Roser Amposta.
Medicated chewing gum is considered a valid drug delivery system that releases the active ingredient by chewing.
Medicated chewing gum offers a wide range of advantages that make it an excellent alternative. Chewing gum has been proven as a great delivery vehicle for nutrients and drugs. For example, nicotine smoking cessation chewing gum is one of the most successful controlled-release drugs.
Chewing gum also offers the possibility of rapidly absorbing the drug through the oral mucosa leading to fast onset of action and bioavailability. Also, it has superior sensorial properties compared with other dosage forms; it has a more attractive appeal and offers the patient an active control over the treatment.
Then there are the benefits of chewing gum in general; the most significant one is that of oral care. Chewing sugar-free gum after eating is clinically proven to be an important part of good oral health. There are many studies that demonstrate that chewing gum stimulates saliva flow and increases plaque pH, which prevents tooth decay. Moreover, chewing gum increases alertness and concentration, helps to control weight management and reduces stress.
Added to the therapeutic effect of the drug there is a very positive synergistic effect brought on by the action of chewing, which has a positive effect on the patient's compliance. Cafosa sees a strong potential for medicated chewing gum as an innovative and valid alternative to standard, chewable or orally disintegrating tablet presentations.
Recently as a part of "a taste for bold ideas", the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave grants to encourage creativity among scientists, especially on those areas that have never been focused on health before.
One of the winning projects was from a group of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, who were planning to develop a chewing gum that can be used as a diagnostic tool. Called MALiVA, it will detect the presence of malaria in a person's saliva.
During chewing, particles in the gum will react with malaria proteins, which can be detected and characterised when the gum is scanned with a magnet.
In order to make the production of medicated chewing gum easier, Cafosa has developed Health in Gum, an innovative concept for the pharmaceutical industry. Health in Gum is an excipient, a directly compressible powder gum containing a mix of ingredients, to which you only need to add your own APIs.
Health in Gum is specially designed for in-house use in pharmaceutical facilities and does not require specific chewing gum production equipment. It performs excellently using standard tabletting equipment.
Health in Gum offers an innovative drug delivery system that benefits from
all the advantages of chewing gum and also contributes
to improved compliance. It has been created to
simplify the manufacturing process of chewing
gum in a quick and cost-effective way. It is directly
compressible and works at room temperature, which
allows the use of thermosensitive APIs.
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