Pelletization is an agglomeration process that converts fine powders or granules of bulk drugs and excipients into small, free flowing, spherical or semi spherical units, referred to as pellets. Pellets range in size, typically, between 0.3 – 1.5 mm, though other sizes could be prepared. Pellets can be prepared by many methods, the compaction and drug-layering techniques being the most widely used today. Regardless of which manufacturing process is used, pellets have to meet the following requirements.
The safety and efficacy of the formulation is higher than that of other dosage forms. Pellets provide high degree of flexibility during the design and development of oral dosage forms. They can be divided into desired dose strengths without formulation or process changes, and can also be blended to deliver incompatible bioactive agents simultaneously or particles with different release profiles at the same site or at different sites within the gastrointestinal tract.
In addition, pellets have numerous therapeutic advantages over traditional single units, such as tablets and powder- filled capsules. Taken orally, pellets generally disperse freely in the gastrointestinal tract, and consequently maximize the drug absorption, minimize local irritation of the mucosa by certain irritant drugs because of the small quantity of drug available in a single pellet, and reduce inter and intrapatient variability 2 . As the advantages of pellets over single units became clear, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole started to devote resources to conduct research in pellet technology and, whenever possible, acquire advanced equipment suitable for the manufacture of pellets.
Pellets may be manufactured by using different methods according to the application and the choice of producer. The methods used for Pelletization are essentially the same as the granulation methods. The most widely used processes are extrusion and spheronization and solution or suspension layering, and powder layering. Other processes with limited application in the development of pharmaceutical pelletized products include globulation, balling, and compression. ADVANTAGES OF PELLETS: They can be divided in to desired dosage strength without process or formulation changes. When pellets containing the active ingredient are in the form of suspension, capsules, or disintegrating tablets, they offer significant therapeutic advantages over single unit dosage forms. They can also be blended to deliver incompatible bioactive agents.
They can also be used to provide different release profile at the same or different sites in the gastrointestinal tract. Pellets offer high degree of flexibility in the design and development of oral dosage form like suspension, sachet, tablet and capsule
Flexibility of pellets in development of dosage form.
API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) manufacturing requires that special attention be paid to processing equipment design, hygiene and safety.
Pellet processing is accomplished with several of our products, including the Axial, cone, Radial, Die roller, mixer cum extruder, basket models.
UMANG PHARMATECH® advanced pellet technology and superior engineering provide unparalleled processing efficiency exceptional product quality
Successfully scaling up to full production means replicating your pilot results. How do you do this? The key is to use lab milling equipment that exactly
Particle size is a critical parameter in material properties. Monitoring and measurement of grain size distribution during processing is critical to successful product.
High shear granulator is the new mixer range that builds on the proven Umang technology and its benefits. Similar design of process bowl, mixer and chopper ensures that process
Twin Screw extruder is widely used for making pellets of different sizes starting from minimum 400 microns to maximum 2000 microns.
Integrated Mixer & Extruder is a compact design equipment with production capacity of 150 kgs of pellets per hour on continuous basis.
Die Roller Extruder as two rollers one is perforated and the second is knurling roller both are horizontally placed with minimum gap of 0.3mm.
The process involves the deposition of successive layers of an active compound onto nonpareil seeds resulting in the formation of uniform size pellets.