Ideal Cures gets US patent for pharma coating technology

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) Ideal Cures, a company specialising in film coating compositions on tablets, pellets and granules for the pharma, health and dietary supplement industry, has secured a US patent for an innovation, claimed as both cost-effective and non-toxic.

"This provides an excellent opportunity to pharma and nutraceuticals industry worldwide to get rid of organic solvents like isopropyl alcohol and methylene chloride, toxic to environment and coating operators," said Ideal Cures Managing Director Suresh Pareek.

"Inventive composition provides elegant, glossy, prompt-release coating which does not retard release of active ingredient from coated substrate," Pareek said, explaining the technology and material used for covering and protecting products like tablets.

"This is the first time an Indian pharmaceutical excipient manufacturer has been granted a US patent on a ready-to-use film coating composition. This raises our patent portfolio to 10 now -- nine of which have been granted in India."

Pareek is also a co-inventor of the new technology.

Going into the technical aspects of the innovation that has secured the US Patent Number 8,123,849, experts at Ideal Cures said it uses a coating composition, comprising sodium alginate with 20 percent recon level.

"This will result in saving of up to 40 percent in coating time for pharmaceuticals and nutraceutical industry, compared with other compositions based on hydroxy-propyl-methyl-cellulose," said one of the scientists at the Ideal Cures facility here.

This technology also protects tablets from moisture, sunlight and some other atmospheric conditions, and would also be of great help to nutraceutical companies, which make food products that provide both health and medical benefits, the scientist said.

This apart, addition of colours in the composition would have the distinct advantage of creating brand identification for the user and add smoothness in finish that will help in easy passage of the tablets, even bigger ones, through the esophagus, he added.

The company has also filed for a single patent under the Patent Cooperation Treaty for an application based on a sodium alginate for a programmed timed release of active ingredients with pre-determined lag period.

This is useful for acidic ingredients and in cases where there is stomach degradation.

According to scientists at Ideal Cures, they are offering tomorrow's technology today, while others are struggling to develop similar products based on natural polymers which will qualify for "Gras" -- or generally recognised as safe -- status.

The company, headquartered in Mumbai, has a presence in more than 40 countries. It has a subsidiary company in Europe, and three plants at Vasai, near Mumbai, Jammu and Khambhat in Gujarat, all of which are covered by cGMP - current good manufacturing practices.

It has been pursuing tailor-made excipients and coating solutions for solid dosage forms such as ready-to-use coating systems, modified release technologies, novel drug delivery systems, acrylic pharma polymers, extended cooling boosters and neutral spheres.