Ideal Cures wins first US patent for solvent-free coating tech
The product – known as Instacoat P4 – is a sodium alginate coating excipient that was granted patent number 8,123,849 for application in the production of tablets, caplets, pellets and granules by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) late last month.
Managing director Suresh Pareek told in-Pharmatechnologist.com that the product has been designed to offer significant advantages over existing technologies, foremost among which is that because it is aqueous-based "no organic solvents are required.”
This feature - he suggested - provides an excellent opportunity for the pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals industries to get rid of organic solvents like IPA and Methylene chloride, both of which are toxic to environment and coating operators.
Time and cost savings
Pareek added that – according to comparative performance tests detailed in the patent – Instacoat P4’s composition means that coating operations can be completed in a fraction of the time taken using hydroxy-propyl-methyl-cellulose based excipients.
“It will reduce up to 40 per cent time for the manufacturers as compared to conventional HPMC based coating systems. Saving in time would result in saving of cost – faster production will save machine time, labour and energy cost.”
He went on to explain that the excipient – which is new to the market – is made at Ideal Cures’ current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) standard facilities in Vasai, near Mumbai, and in Jammu, in Northern India, which are capable of delivering up to 25 tons a month.
Pareek also set out the firm’s marketing plan, explaining that the idea is to sell “mostly to drug manufacturers in US but also to Indian companies producing drugs for the US and European markets.”
The US patent is the tenth held by Ideal Cures and the first to be issued outside India.
