Smart excipient improves powder flow for sachet-based products

Sachets are a popular pharmaceutical and nutraceutical packaging format for consumers and manufacturers alike. To ensure accurate dosage and administration, the powders used in these delivery systems require excellent flowability. BENEO’s filler-binder galenIQ™ 721 meets this demand and helps formulators to develop more convenient dosage forms.

In the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries, sachets or stickpacks are used for many types of single-dose, dry powder formulations — from pain medication, cold and flu treatments to vitamins, mineral mixes and probiotic preparations. Consumers appreciate their ease of use and the ability to take them without water. As such, taste and mouthfeel are key.

For manufacturers, sachets represent an attractive way to formulate a product without the challenges of compressing a powder into a tablet. In addition, sachets offer excellent dose accuracy and a large surface area for branding and/or educational information. They also enhance flavour retention because of the PE/aluminium packaging material that acts as a superior moisture and oxygen barrier.

When developing dry blends for use in sachets, it is crucial that the powder mixture flows precisely and cleanly into the pouch for accurate dosage and proper sealing. Therefore, manufacturers need an excipient that meets the following requirements:

• a narrow particle size distribution
• a very low fines content
• excellent flowability
• low hygroscopicity
• high physical stability during mixing
• high dilution potential
• content uniformity.

galenIQ™ 721 — the agglomerated form of ISOMALT from BENEO — ticks all these boxes. Being derived from pure beet sugar, it is tooth friendly, has a sugar-like taste profile, offers a pleasant mouthfeel and enhances the palatability of oral powder applications.

Dr Maj-Britt Cepok, Head of Business Development, Pharma, BENEO, comments: “As modern on-the-go consumers seek products that meet the needs of their busy lifestyles, sachets are trending. With our galenIQ™ 721 filler-binder, we can help manufacturers to tap into this market and facilitate their sachet development.”

About galenIQ
BENEO is part of the Südzucker Group and a member of the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC). The company produces galenIQ™ (Isomalt Ph. Eur., BP, USP-NF, JP), a multifunctional range of water-soluble filler-binders according to cGMP conditions for pharmaceutical excipients. galenIQ™ is available in a wide variety of median particle sizes, morphologies and solubilities and therefore is readily used in solid and liquid dosage forms such as tablets, sachets, effervescents, lozenges and syrups. It is physically and chemically stable, non-hygroscopic and enhances the palatability of the final form.