US firm has FDA approval for pill coating

The US Food and Drug Adminstration has approved a request by EMD Chemicals, a USA-based subsidiary of German drugmaker Merck KGaA, to add new color pigments to pills and tablets, including shimmering and other effects.

Dan Giambattisto, sales and marketing director at the Gibbstown, New Jersey-based chemical firm told local media: "our materials aren't generally used in the actual pill. What we're doing is adding another coating to give it a pearly effect or luster." He added that he expects considerable demand for the product.

Industry observers see the new pigments as offering effective means of making counterfeiting easier to detect and help patients to discriminate between different medications that they may have been prescribed for simultaneous treatment.