A common approach to masking the ‘bad taste’ of drugs is to use neutral tasting lipid films applied as a hot melt coating in a fluid bed device. In this research, the hot melt coating approach to taste masking was simplified by using a high shear blender, thus eliminating the need for a complex spraying setup and the adaptation of equipment for heating required when using a fluid bed coater.
Using SRLs’ established qualified and experienced descriptive panel of experts, a bespoke lexicon of flavour, taste, mouthfeel and afterflavour/taste/feel attributes were formulated to describe potassium chloride (used as the ‘model – ‘bad tasting’ drug), and potassium chloride coated with 20% glyceryl distearate in either a high shear blender or as hot melt coating in a fluid bed device.
The expert sensory panel confirmed the taste masking effectiveness of both coating processes. In fact, the negative sensory characteristics were shown to be reduced in both processes, when compared to the uncoated ‘model’ drug.
The results suggest that lipid coating in a high shear blender, while offering the benefit of being much simpler, is as efficient as hot melt coating in a fluid bed device. This enables the production of high dose drugs with reduced bitter taste at low excipient concentration and therefore has the potential to improve oral treatment, in particular for paediatric patients.
Click here to read the full paper High shear blending with glyceryl distearate provides individually coated drug particles for effective taste masking
