Knoll Develops Radical Production Method

Knoll AG, the pharmaceutical arm of German company BASF, has reported the development of a new drug production method, called melt extrusion, which it estimates will yield the same sales volume and profitability as a major breakthrough drug.

The extrusion method differs from the current wet processes and discontinuous compression processes that are used today. The new technology is an adaptation of an already existing plastics technology in which thermoplastic materials are shaped by being forced through specially designed nozzles after heating (extrusion is used at present in medicine to shape sutures and implants).

The polymer drug extrusion variant is achieved by the integration of a number of elements in a single system, says Knoll. Conventional pharmaceutical polymers are used as solid matrices into which the drug is incorporated during extrusion, in addition to other ingredients which dictate whether the extrudate is degraded rapidly or slowly when taken by the patient. The thermoplastic strands emerging from the extruder can be passed between rollers and chopped into sections to produce tablet-like bolus forms, pellets, suppositories or tablets.