Powder to the people
Pharmaceutical companies have often been wary
of drug delivery via medicated chewing gum due
to
the complex manufacturing processes involved.
But, as Cafosa’s technical director Roser
Amposta
explains to World Pharmaceutical Frontiers, the
organisation has developed Health in Gum, which
offers an innovative way to produce medicated
chewing gum simply and cost-effectively.
Already a leading gum base supplier, one in two
chewing-gum manufacturers worldwide opt for
Cafosa’s gum bases. With wide-ranging experience
in the international gum sector, the Barcelona-based
company,
which is part of the Mars/Wrigley group, can offer
gums suitable
for confectionery, nutraceutical or pharmaceutical
applications.
As the pharmaceuticals industry continues to
seek out
increasingly innovative solutions, the company
has the
scope to expand further into the sector, something
Cafosa’s
Roser Amposta feels is a realistic goal.
Healthy gum
The company has recently launched a new product,
Health in
Gum, which consists of a range of compressible
powder gums,
suitable for pharmaceutical applications. The
speed of drug
delivery from these products is impressive.
Health in Gum contains a mix of ingredients to
which can be
added an active principle. “Medicated chewing
gum offers a
fast offset of action due to the partial oral
absorption of the drug
in the mouth,” says Amposta, adding that
medicated chewing
gum also reduces exposure to the gastrointestinal
side-effects
caused by APIs.
On the other hand, she remarks that chewing gum
reinforces
patient’s compliance as he or she gets directly
involved in the
treatment through the action of chewing.
While the release rate depends on the properties
of each
specific drug, Amposta emphasises that water-soluble
drugs
have optimal release profiles. “Poorly soluble
drugs have slower
or partial release due to their natural tendency
of bonding to the
gum,” she explains.
Fast and effective
There are already several established medicated
products such
as nicotine, anti-histamine and motion sickness
gums, but the
scope for this method of drug delivery is much
wider than the
options currently on the market.
“Fast-acting medicines that are intended
as a response to
acute unpleasant sensations such as headache,
migraine,
coughs and colds, as well as drugs for anxiety,
allergy and
digestive discomfort, are suitable to be delivered
via chewing
gum,” says Amposta. “We see a strong
potential for medicated
chewing gum as a valid alternative to standard
chewable or
orally disintegrated tablets.”
However, pharmaceutical companies have often
avoided
medicated chewing gum because of the complex
manufacturing processes involved. “Traditional
chewinggum
manufacturing requires very specific equipment
and
facilities involving hot-melt processes (high-shear
mixing and
shape forming) that are not usually common in
the industry,”
Amposta acknowledges. “But with our new product,
Health in
Gum, all that is required for production is a
standard solid
powder blender and direct compression in a dry
and roomtemperature
process – the standard conditions that are
used
for processing tablets.”
This clearly results in significant cost savings:
rather than
having to invest in technology not often used
in the industry,
Cafosa offers pharmaceutical organisations a convenient,
finished dosage form to produce and market.
Popular appeal
As the industry begins to appreciate the feasibility
of medicated
chewing gum manufacture, Cafosa’s products
will become ever
more popular. Indeed, Amposta notes that pharmaceutical
organisations are very amenable to the gum base
provider’s
proposals. “Today, companies are concerned
with offering
innovative products that can differentiate them
from their
competitors and provide added value to consumers,”
she
continues. “Gum is an excellent option.”
With such a wide scope for application, Amposta
is
convinced that the popularity of medicated gum
will continue
to increase. “There will be more products
coming in the near
future,” she predicts. “In the nutraceutical
field we already have
a long list of available products, with applications
ranging from
weight management to oral care, probiotics to
vitamins.”
Already an established and trusted name in the
chewinggum
market, the launch of Cafosa’s Health in
Gum is set to
have a significant impact on the pharmaceuticals
sector. With
companies looking for increasingly innovative
products and the
‘sticky situation’ of costly manufacturing
processes successfully
bypassed, there is little doubt that medicated
chewing gum will
hold a prominent place in the future of drug delivery.
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