AccuSpray helps drugmakers cut tablet making costs
stearate that pharmaceutical firms require during drug manufacture,
according to developer Oystar Manesty.
Magnesium stearate is used to coat and lubricate tablet surfaces and prevent them from sticking to compression tools during manufacturing. Drugmakers can use up to 100grams and hour of the excipient. In contrast, the AccuSpray system's specially developed nozzle enables manufacturers to use as little as 4g of magnesium stearate an hour during without any drop in production rate. Oystar hopes that the cost benefit of this reduction will be attractive to pharmaceutical producers. With pharmaceutical firms continually seeking to reduce manufacturing costs through out-sourcing and improved raw ingredient usage, any product advance that reduces materials consumption is likely to be widely adopted by drugmakers and contract manufacturing organisations (CMO) alike. The New Jersey-based firm also claims that the AccuSpray approach also enables compression machines to be run and eject tablets using reduced forces, minimizing the wear and tear that occurs during production runs, cutting maintenance costs. Oystar's process division vice president, Nic Michel, commented that: "AccuSpray is the only magnesium stearate application system that validates the amount of stearate sprayed on each tablet. It also helps to keep the press clean thanks to its non-continuous operating mode." Highly configurable system The AccuSpray system, which is available for tablet presses that are part of Oystar's Xpress range, utilizes non-continuous spraying of a 10 per cent magnesium stearate pure ethanol mix solution onto the upper and lower punch tips as well as the die wall used during tablet production. In addition, the platform employs a piezo-electric pump to ensure the exact metering of magnesium stearate on pill surfaces and keep flow rates constant. As a result the magnesium film completely encloses the tablets, but only comprises 0.03 per cent of total weight. Oystar added that the unit, which can added to existing production lines, features a user-friendly operating console which supports extensive process control and parameter configuration.
