Excipients Help Pharma Extend Product Lif...( NEW YORK April 2 2008 /- With the...)

NEW YORK, April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- With their ability to extend product life, excipients are being turned to increasingly as part of Big Pharma's strategy during lean times, and this portends a robust market for them, according to a new report from a major life sciences market research publisher. There are about 1200 excipients on the market, used in all types of pharmaceuticals. This $4.6 billion market has witnessed healthy growth in the past few years and is expected to continue along the same trajectory through 2012, due to increased demand from new drug targets, new biological drugs, new formulations and synthetic agents, according to Kalorama Information's new report Pharmaceutical Excipients for Oral Formulations, 2nd Edition.

Pharmaceutical excipients are substances, other than the pharmacologically active drug or prodrug, which are included in the manufacturing process or are contained in the finished pharmaceutical product dosage form. Excipients provide enhanced functionality to pharmaceuticals, aid in drug development and innovation and help improve patent life, all at a lower cost.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to be weighed down by the pressure to cut costs, by generic competition, and a lack of innovation. In this environment, excipients are becoming a more important aspect in tablet manufacture than they were previously and are even helping to develop innovative drug formulations. For example, innovations in delivery, such as sustained release, allow pharmaceutical companies to extend the patent life on existing products.

"Once they were thought of as fillers, but today the line between active ingredients and excipients has blurred," notes Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. "As companies need to develop cost-cutting strategies, excipients are now thought of as functional materials rather than inactive bulking agents."

Kalorama Information's report Pharmaceutical Excipients for Oral Formul
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