Pellet technology.

Mayne Pharma pelleting technology and processes

Pellet (or bead) technology allows a variety of different drug delivery profiles to be achieved by coating a ‘core’ of drug and excipient with various polymers. The drug cores are generally spheroidal in shape and have a diameter in the range of 300 to 1,700 µm. In order to generate the spheroidal particles, there are two main types of processes used:

• The first, extrusion granulation, granulates API with excipients, which is extruded to form a core then coated by polymers. This process allows drug potencies up to 90%.
• The second process is known as spheronization, where drug particles are fixed to the outside of a seed core, typically sugar, with the aid of a binder. The core is coated with a polymer. This process provides a very tight size distribution of pellets. Drug potencies up to 60% are possible.