Tag: Pharmaceutical manufacturing

Approximately 37% of marketed medications use maize (corn) starch as an excipient. These excipients are inactive substances sourced from corn, playing crucial roles in the formulation of oral medications like tablets, capsules, and syrups.

Lactose is found in over 60% of all oral solid dose medicines, including tablets, capsules, and dry powder inhalers. This prevalence often raises concerns, particularly for individuals with lactose intolerance or milk allergies, who question why so many medications contain lactose, an ingredient known to cause digestive issues in some people. The answer lies in lactose's unique properties, which make it an ideal inactive ingredient, or excipient, in drug manufacturing.

According to the National Institutes of Health, injectable lipid emulsions have a mean droplet size typically below 500 nm. The process of lipid emulsion involves combining immiscible oil and water phases into a stable dispersion, a critical procedure with broad applications in nutrition, drug delivery, and other industries. This is achieved through mechanical force and stabilizing agents known as emulsifiers.