Merck Parteck COAT excipient

Merck has launched its Parteck COAT excipient — a functional material designed for immediate release film coating applications.

The excipient is a particle engineered polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with a particle structure that enables rapid dissolution even at low temperatures; this is said to lead to increased process efficiency. The water-soluble particle offers batch-to-batch consistency, contributing to the quality and performance of the final drug product.

The material offers low viscosity in solution, even at high concentrations of 20%, leading to high efficacy. Compared with existing PVAs for coating applications, it has the potential to double the polymer concentration and cut the process time in half.

Other advantages include: a stable moisture barrier to improve stability of moisture-sensitive drug substances; good surface finishing to increase the value of drug formulations; and a high concentration of spraying liquid to increase coating efficacy.

The product is compliant with and surpasses the requirements of all major pharmacopoeias, including United States Pharmacopoeia, European Pharmacopoeia, Chinese Pharmacopoeia and Japanese Pharmaceutical Excipients.