Rapid Dissolve

Rapid Dissolve or Orally Disintegrating Dosage Forms (ODDF) are preferred by a rapidly increasing number of patients. Especially children and elderly people, who appreciate the convenience of taking a drug without the need for a glass of water or the difficulty of swallowing a large tablet.

The convenience of a fast-dissolve format requires the use of very moisture sensitive materials. Biovail Corporation (formerly Fuisz Technologies), based in northern Virginia, discovered a way to place active drug ingredients into a micro-encapsulated sphere that dissolves as if it were cotton candy once it hits your tongue.

In 1999, Boots International Healthcare, based in Manchester, England, was the first international drug company to commercialize a product using the Fuisz Flashdose® delivery system. Boots revolutionized the treatment of pain throughout Europe and Australia by placing their Nurofen® Meltlets™ product in this delivery system. Now no one needs water to swallow pain relief. Simply put the tablet on the tongue and it dissolves in less then thirty seconds. There are also a few vitamins using the same system.

Many wondered why a consumer would want to swallow any medication without water. Why not just chew and swallow? But many active ingredients are destroyed through chewing, crushing them in the mouth. In the case of ibuprofen, a terrible tasting active, this alternative was not even a choice.

All these systems have several major characteristics in common - they are very hygroscopic, the tablets can be very brittle and they contain a lot of taste-masking agents. Aclar® laminates provide the moisture barrier to protect the very hygroscopic; the Aclar blister provide structural rigidity to protect the fragile tablets; and Aclar PCTFE provides a great flavor barrier maintaining the taste-masking agent.

Nurofen® Meltlets™ is a registered trademark of Crookes Healthcare (Booth Healthcare International).