I was invited by Dr. Victor Lau
(Technology Transfer Officer, KTO, CityU) to join CityU Business &
Industrial Club (CUBIC) Happy Hour Tea Gathering from Life Science Group on 18 April
2016. I would like to summarize the talk
as follows.
Dr. Herman C. Lam (CEO, Powder
Pharma Coating Inc.) was the guest speaker and his topic entitled “From
Rainforest to Desert: Commercialization of the revolutionary electrostatic dry
powder coating technology for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries”. Dr. Lam said Powder Pharma Coating would be the
next generation of coating technology for pharmaceutical R&D and
manufacturing to replace traditional aqueous and solvent coating processes.
Firstly, Dr. Lam briefed why
tablets, capsules, beads and pellets need coating. Because it could improve appearance,
compliance, physical and chemical stability, ease of packaging and to swallow,
etc. However, the existing technique
using liquid coating had the following disadvantages:
-
Microbial contaminations in aqueous coating processes
-
High energy cost and expensive air handling systems
-
Water sensitive products
-
Batch-to-batch variations for functional coatings
-
Product stability issues
-
Long processing time, etc.
The comparison of cost between
Powder and Solvent coating was shown in the following table.