Niro Pharma Systems has launched a new tablet coating system that is designed to improve the evenness of coating materials deposited on tablets - even if they are friable or hygroscopic - and can handle batch sizes as low as 30g to make r&d more cost effective.
In conventional coaters, tablets are loaded into large rotating pans and vented for hot air drying, which can result in edges being ground off, indentations being filled by coating material and edges and corners remaining uncoated. However, Super-Cell Coating Technology (SCT) uses a technique in which the tablets are coated with a spray that is directed the same way as the drying gas. It also has an air distribution plate design that helps the tablets move quickly and predictably through the spray zone, meaning that a small amount of coating material will get added on with each pass.
Another common problem with conventional coating is the need for large batches (several kilograms) of tablets to be coated simultaneously. This can be wasteful and costly, so the SCT has been designed to handle batches from 30 - 120g.
The SCT is also said to be quicker than conventional coaters, taking only seconds or minutes rather than hours to complete the process. This makes it suitable for handling very hygroscopic tablets that would degrade if exposed in the coater for extended periods of time.
Despite the time-saving, Niro claims that the accuracy of coating deposition is still good enough to allow APIs to be layered onto tablets, and for consecutive application of uniform layers of taste-masking or modified release coatings within a single batch.