While progress in drug delivery systems is continually happening, drug efficacy and bioavailability continue to be significant unmet requirements in the market. Several oral drug formulations serve effectively from a drug delivery aspect, but obstacles to patient use hinder their real-world ability to promote patient health. In fact, the resultant patient noncompliance has a severe and long-lasting consequence on patient health. Therefore, formulations proactively produced with the consumer in mind are a province for significant growth.
Several microcrystalline cellulose powder manufacturers and excipient manufacturers offer binding agents and products to make drug products more consumer-centric.
Challenges of Conventional Drug Products
Dosing frequency
Sustaining patient adherence to dosing plans, mainly when a medication demands multiple doses every day, is a longstanding concern.
Medication noncompliance is a critical problem with elderly patients, who are more likely to have many drug products to manage.
Tablet size
Along with dosing frequency, the physical characteristics of the drug product dramatically influence patient compliance. Tablet size is one instance.
Large tablets present a barrier for patient’s use, especially for diabetics, the elderly, and children.
Liquid-specific challenges
While tablets and pills are a more common mode of medication, liquid formulations have their own set of hurdles. Formulations that spill easily can make that tough or lead to incorrect dosage. Thicker, more viscous solutions are sometimes an answer and might spill less quickly but can be uncomfortable to swallow.
Taste offers another challenge to liquid drug production, especially for pediatric medications. Liquid drugs can be more manageable for children, but the bitter-taste makes it challenging to guarantee that children consistently take the medications at the appropriate dose.
Patient-Centric Solutions to These Challenges
As we discuss these challenges, it is essential to note that many of them have a reduced impact when paired with the correct binding products like the microcrystalline cellulose. It is an excipient used commonly in the production of tablets and other drug products.
Extended Drug Release
The key to producing efficient extended-release drug products rests mainly with the excipients used during formulation by drug developers. With the suitable excipient, most tablets can be composed to properly facilitate long release periods, resulting in the same efficiency with a fewer number of doses.
Pill Size Reduction
Most oral tablets available in the market today arrive in large dimensions and can be difficult to consume. These pills are generally designed with linear polymers requiring a greater quantity of excipient to bind with the drug, causing the tablet sizes to be large. For this, certain excipients present solutions to other formulation obstacles by creating stronger bonds and requiring less amount of excipient, resulting in tablet size reduction and more patient-friendly products.
No-Spillage & Taste Masking
Ideally, to tackle spillage concerns, drug formulations need to be vicious at rest. Still, they become less so as they are poured or swallowed before immediately becoming viscous again once pouring is complete. Helping a patient to reliably administer the drug product without spillage.
The formulation should additionally solve the problem of unpleasant medication taste. Excipients can effectively mask the bitterness of medication without compromising the drug’s bioavailability as other methods can.
Though the challenges might seem daunting, there are various options drug developers can explore to overcome them. Usually, a suitable excipient presents an easy solution, especially if partnering with knowledgeable microcrystalline cellulose powder manufacturers like RanQ. We understand that a critical step in creating patient-centric drug products is picking an excipient specially designed to impart necessary consumer-driven attributes to encourage compliance among them.