A capsule is a small container filled with liquid or powder and designed to be easy for people to swallow quickly, tastelessly, and tamper-resistant. These pills may even prove more effective than tablets since their contents enter the bloodstream more rapidly.
Encapsulation has many advantages for drug development and manufacturing. It offers significant time and cost savings during all production steps while increasing product success rates.
Ease of swallowing
Sufferers of difficulty swallowing may face difficulty when it comes to taking tablets and capsules, leading to poor compliance, treatment failure and reduced quality of life. Swallowing difficulties can arise from various causes including strong gag reflexes, the texture and size of tablets or capsules or their coating causing issues with swallowing.
A capsule is a small, gelatin capsule containing medication. Often shaped oblong in appearance and designed to be pulled apart carefully for dosing purposes, capsules have fixed amounts of medication inside that cannot be divided in half through pulling.
Capsules provide an advantageous dosage form, offering greater versatility to encase liquid and semi-solid drug formulations that would otherwise be difficult to compress into solid tablets. Their shell can be composed of animal-derived gelatin or plant-based alternatives to accommodate dietary restrictions and may include plasticizers, lubricants, flavouring agents or opacifiers – the latter can contribute hardness while altering disintegration characteristics of the capsule.
Bioavailability
Pharmacology defines bioavailability as the extent to which a drug is absorbed into systemic circulation, an aspect of absorption. Bioavailability depends on many factors including drug type, physical form and route of administration and may differ significantly between people.
Bioavailability refers to how well medication enters your bloodstream, reaching its intended target. But this doesn’t guarantee safety; for instance, it could be transformed to toxic metabolites before entering your system or interact chemically with other drugs at play.
Bioequivalence (BE) of oral dosage forms is an integral element in prescribing medications. This article introduces the general concept of BE and examines key issues surrounding its assessment, such as regulatory requirements and bioequivalence studies. Furthermore, this resource offers details about study design and statistical methods.
Safety
Comparative to tablets, capsules are typically safer to take as they’re less vulnerable to damage or heat exposure. Plus, their gelatin shells tend to be less prone to degrade from excessive moisture levels, making storage conditions more accommodating – this explains why you may find them in first aid kits.
Hermetically sealed and tamper-evident capsules offer further advantages. This helps prevent accidental contamination with other substances or unintended use of medication contained inside. Their outer layer typically includes plasticizers such as glycerin or sorbitol to soften their hardness while other ingredients including antimicrobial preservatives, disintegrants, and lubricants can also be added for maximum efficacy.
Some capsules can be designed to slowly release medication, thereby reducing gastrointestinal irritation and improving dosage accuracy and precision. This feature can be particularly helpful when administering medications that require constant concentration in the bloodstream such as opioid-based pain relievers and antibiotics.
Durability
Capsules provide greater durability than tablets, and are less susceptible to breakage or moisture damage. Their shell also protects medications from exposure to sunlight and oxygen which could cause them to degrade over time.
Hard capsules commonly use gelatin as their gelling agent; however, vegetarian options exist if you wish not to take animal-derived products such as HPMC (hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose) and pullulan are two such alternatives.
Capsules are easier and cheaper to make than many other dosage forms, which helps decrease development time and costs. Furthermore, their customizability makes them perfect for pharmaceutical products requiring precise dosing – this allows for improved patient compliance and more precise outcomes and treatment outcomes – making capsules a key product in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Furthermore, controlled-release medication delivery makes capsules especially helpful in managing chronic conditions requiring regular dosages.