Producing Excipients as a Platform Technology with Galvita at CPHI Barcelona

Excipients are a crucial component of a pharmaceutical finished dosage form, normally providing support to help produce an effective drug product. Galvita AG, a start-up company based in Basel, Switzerland, was founded in 2021 and its COO, Dr. Rainer Schmidt, was on hand at CPHI Barcelona 2023 to provide Pharmaceutical Technology Europe^® with an overview of the company's offerings.

An excipient manufacturer

"Galvita is an excipient manufacturer," explained Schmidt. "We are producing excipients as a platform technology to be loaded with active ingredients."

Schmidt highlighted that the company is working with as many active ingredients as possible, looking to load these ingredients into an orally dispersible tablet (ODT) form. "[These ODTs] are taken by the patient [orally] and disintegrate very fast," he said. "The microcapsules [then stick] onto the mucosa and transport the active ingredient to the body."

According to clinical studies performed by Galvita, Schmidt revealed that the onset of the active ingredients has been shown to be around 10 minutes. "So, [our platform is] very fast acting," Schmidt added. "It's a very nice product to [use to] implement emergency medicine, epilepsy medicines, and any medicine you would like to have."

A plethora of options

Schmidt went on to highlight the fact that Galvita can also incorporate poorly soluble compounds within its offerings. "The loading capacity is about 30%, and we are using water solutions and ethanol at the moment, but also isopropanol is possible," he added.

Furthermore, ODTs provide a great option for specific patient-populations, such as geriatrics and pediatrics, Schmidt stated. If the patient has difficulty swallowing, then an ODT enables the patient to simply pop the drug product into their mouth and it can dissolve and administer the drug product. "So, because we do not need so much liquid to disintegrate the tablets, in the end you cannot feel [them] in the mouth," he specified.

Taste-masking is also a possibility, Schmidt confirmed, as the microparticles used "suck in the active ingredient" and protect it. So, Galvita's platform can also taste-mask bitter ingredients, which is again beneficial for pediatric patients, he remarked.

Final words

It is also possible to coat the tablets—so, they are no longer ODTs—but within this coated format, Schmidt pointed out that it is possible to transport the tablet to the colon of the patient. "In the colon you can also have these mucosa adhering effects," he said. An option particularly useful for diseases within the stomach-colon area.

"The active ingredients we use are only in combination with inorganic materials," Schmidt summarized. "Our microcapsules are pure tri-calcium phosphate, which is [stable in the mouth] as microparticles … so no problem in terms of toxicological effects."

Galvita AG was featured at the inaugural Start-Up Market on the show floor at CPHI Barcelona 2023. CPHI Barcelona ran from Oct. 24–26, 2023.