The taste of orally administered medicines has important implications for patient compliance. However, most APIs have an unpleasant taste. Therefore, developing better tasting medicines is a major focus in pharmaceutical manufacturing – especially for user-friendly dosage forms, which spend longer in the mouth compared to traditional tablets and capsules.
In this Pharmaceutical Technology article, Martin Koeberle, Head of Analytical Development and Stability Testing at HERMES PHARMA, and Matt Shaffer, Manager of Formulation Development at Capsugel, discuss:
- The different approaches used for taste masking, such as taste modification, drug complexation and functional coating
- What you should consider when choosing a taste masking strategy
- The challenges associated with taste masking, particularly when targeting paediatric and geriatric consumers
- How to evaluate the taste of a formulation using in-vitro dissolution tests and human taste evaluation studies
A. Siew, “A Matter of Taste,” Pharmaceutical Technology, 39 (9) 34–38 (2015)