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All change at BioProgress

By Anna Lewcock, 17-Sep-2007

Related topics: Excipients, raw materials and intermediates, Tabletting, coating & ancillary equipment, Ingredients

UK tabletting specialist BioProgress made a series of announcements last week, not only landing itself a commercial partner and patent protection for its novel tablet coating technology, but also rebranding itself under a new name, Meldex International.

BioProgress, now Meldex, has sealed a deal with generics and specialty pharma firm Barr-Pliva to partner and co-promote certain products taking advantage of Meldex' TabWrap technology.

 

 

 

The technology has become even more commercially attractive following the granting of a European patent for the tablet coating platform, announced at the company's Extraordinary General Meeting held last week.

 

 

 

The TabWrap system is a unique method of dry coating novel tablet cores. It is a high speed finishing process for compressed tablets, wrapping the individual pills in an edible film sheet. The firm says that the method is particularly suitable for fragile tablet formulations which can chip and damage during the conventional coating process.

 

 

 

The totally dry coating process also removes issues surrounding highly soluble tabletting excipients, according to the company, and the novel tablet cores with their thin film coating also allow drugs to be absorbed more rapidly into the blood stream.

 

 

 

The process uses the company's proprietary XGel films in the coating process, which are free of animal derivatives and can be coloured, flavoured and pre-printed. If tablet cores are already embossed with logos or symbols, the TabWrap coating will take up the embossing.

 

 

 

The cost of the coating system is less than sugar coating, and while a little more costly than traditional spraying methods it is claimed to be more efficient as it only involves a single-step process rather than separate spraying and drying stages.

 

 

 

The system is initially being applied to analgesic therapies, with TabWrap formulated products already in the development pipeline. According to Meldex, the total value of the pain relief products on a global basis has the potential to generate over $100m (€72m).

 

 

 

The patent and new commercial partner demonstrates that things are moving apace with the UK company, with additional products and technologies due to be added to the Barr-Pliva agreement over the next few months.

 

 

 

It's been a busy year so far at the London company, with a number of key milestones having been achieved since the start of the year. Early in the year the company announced the launch of its novel tablet cores, which allow pills that were previously very difficult to coat to be reformulated and easily coated using the TabWrap technology.

 

 

 

May then saw the launch of FastWrap, another tabletting technology based on the TabWrap system.

 

 

 

FastWrap combines the TabWrap process with the company's patented novel tablet core technology to create coated tablets that can rapidly disintegrate and dissolve, allowing for a faster onset of action. The system is being targeted at over-the-counter (OTC) analgesic and cough/cold medications, where speed and onset of action are key.

 

 

 

Back in December the company announced the installation of the first TabWrap system in a fully compliant manufacturing facility belonging to INyX in the UK, and was perhaps lucky that operations at the Manchester site were not interrupted by the legal wrangling and insolvency issues at the contract manufacturer.

 

 

 

Meldex, however, now seems on track to pursue its development plans and make the most of its novel technologies. The name change perhaps reflects this new chapter, designed to show the transition from the company's former position as an "industrial based technology 'push' business to a market led product focused sales and marketing concern."

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