Pharmaceutical excipients

Ashland’s knowledge of the structure-function relationships of pharmaceutical polymers, combined with their extensive product line can help you bind, coat, dissolve, and effectively deliver complex drug molecules where and when they’re needed.

Their experts around the world can also provide:

Ongoing research provides a foundation for advanced technical solutions to address formulation and manufacturing challenges. Ashland provides formulators with unique opportunities for research and development collaboration.

Targeted rheology, texture and stabilisation in oral-liquid dosage forms play vital roles in delivery of the pharmaceutical components. The water binding and viscosity modification capacities of many of Ashland’s polymers thicken and suspend in liquids, gels, syrups and semi-solid dosage forms for improved patient satisfaction and shelf life of products.

Ashland’s extensive product line can help you bind, coat, dissolve, and effectively deliver complex drug molecules where and when they’re needed.

Solutions include:

Bioresorbable polymers have been commercialised for more than 50 years, however, until now, no manufacturer has offered a single source of three key excipients used to formulate these revolutionary drug delivery systems that are designed to improve patients’ lives.
With the addition of Viatel™ bioresorbable polymers, Ashland provides a comprehensive line of products for parenteral, controlled release drug delivery. Complementary excipients include Aqualon™ CMC PH BET sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, a suspending agent for two-component systems; and Pharmasolve™ n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, a versatile solubilizer for one-component systems.
Parenteral formulations present unique challenges to formulators. Ashland has products that can help address these challenges.

Ashland’s extensive product lines offer various degrees of both hydrophilicity and molecular weights, providing you with a host of options. The combination of its comprehensive product line, controlled release formulation and polymer expertise, results in the ability to offer tailored release profiles that are designed to meet the needs of our customers’ drug molecules.

Effective tablet disintegration is necessary for active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) dissolution and release. Ashland knows that this is often a challenge that needs solving. Ashland’s Polyplasdone™ crospovidone, a synthetic, cross-linked polymer, provides rapid disintegration and dissolution of oral solid-dosage forms, even at low use levels – thus also making it effective for high dose formulations.

Ashland pharmaceutical scientists have extensive expertise in the development and manufacture of spray-dried and hot melt-extruded solid dispersions. Over the past 15 years, the contract-services group has developed formulations for more than 100 poorly water-soluble compounds.

Choosing the right binder is critical to maintaining the integrity of a nutraceutical tablet. As the ingredient sources broaden to include a wide range of bioactive extracts from plants, lipids or vegetables, so do the challenges faced by formulators.

During the manufacturing process, ingredients can degrade, may have unpleasant odours or tastes, or can become unstable in their finished form. Other potential issues could include chipping, breaking and swelling; hard-to-compress tablets or poor flowability in manufacturing. Ashland’s wide range of excipients provides solutions for many of these challenges.