Asymmetric Solid Dosage Form with Reduced Contact Patch
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Solution Overview
Problem
Many patients experience difficulty swallowing solid oral medications, leading to issues like esophageal transit failure, delayed drug absorption, and potential damage from corrosive drugs, with existing solutions like quick-dissolving tablets and enhanced liquids not being widely adopted due to practicality and cost issues.
Innovation Solution
Designing solid dosage forms with reduced contact patches, such as asymmetric shapes, ridged, dimpled, or spherical designs, to minimize adhesion and facilitate rapid and reliable oral and esophageal transit, using existing manufacturing processes with modifications to accommodate these new shapes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional solid dosage forms (tablets, capsules) are used, then manufacturing simplicity and cost-effectiveness are maintained, but esophageal transit failure and swallowing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by designing dosage forms with non-symmetric geometries (e.g., asymmetric tablets, capsules with uneven dimensions) that reduce contact area with the esophageal wall during transit. This asymmetric design prevents sticking while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through modified conventional molding processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs spherical or highly curved geometries for dosage forms, which minimize flat surfaces that would otherwise adhere to the esophageal mucosa. The curved surfaces reduce contact patch area and facilitate smoother passage through the esophagus, directly addressing transit failure issues.
2Speed
If rapid dissolving dosage forms are used, then dissolution speed is improved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies physical parameters of conventional dosage forms by changing geometric parameters (shape, surface area, curvature) rather than fundamentally altering the material composition or dissolution mechanism. This approach achieves faster dissolution through optimized geometry while avoiding the manufacturing complexity of completely new dosage form categories.
3Loss of time
If delayed esophageal transit occurs, then absorption timing is delayed, but this is caused by conventional dosage form geometry
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses asymmetric geometries that reduce contact area with the esophageal wall, preventing sticking and ensuring rapid transit. This asymmetric design directly eliminates the geometric cause of delayed absorption timing while maintaining dosage integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A solid dosage form designed to facilitate rapid and reliable oral, esophageal and GI transit has a surface area of the contact patch, i.e., the area of contact between the dosage form and the bodily surface reduced. The dosage form can be an asymmetric oral dosage unit containing a bioactive, the dosage unit being asymmetric with respect to a rotational axis perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the dosage form, the rotational axis being located substantially at a mid point along the longitudinal axis. The dosage unit may have an outer surface ridged or dimpled or have at least one annular ring so as to reduce the contact patch of the dosage unit with a flat surface compared to non-ridged dosage unit of the same size and shape. The oral dosage unit can also have a spherical shape with or without ridges and/or dimples. Dies for forming these oral dosage units have, in a closed state, a cavity having a shape corresponding to the oral dosage unit.