Chocolate Matrix Taste Masking for Pediatric Drug Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current pediatric drug formulations often lack suitable taste-masking technologies, leading to poor palatability and adherence issues, particularly for bitter-tasting medications like midazolam, which are essential for pediatric and geriatric patients, resulting in inaccurate dosing and suboptimal therapeutic outcomes.
Innovation Solution
A chocolate or chocolate substitute delivery system that incorporates a bitter or unpleasant-tasting active pharmaceutical ingredient, utilizing a masking agent and/or suspending agent within a chocolate matrix to mask the taste and provide enhanced stability and bioavailability, allowing for easier administration, especially in young children who cannot swallow conventional tablets or capsules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional tablets or capsules are used for pediatric patients, then dosing accuracy can be maintained, but children cannot swallow them and medication adherence deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the physical form and size parameters of the dosage form from conventional tablets/capsules to small chewable pieces suitable for pediatric patients. The dosage form is designed to be small enough for children to handle and chew, while maintaining accurate dosing through controlled formulation and manufacturing processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite material structures combining the active pharmaceutical ingredient with excipients and taste-masking agents in a chewable formulation. This composite approach enables the product to simultaneously provide accurate dosing, pleasant taste, and appropriate physical properties for pediatric consumption.
2Ease of operation
If taste-masking techniques are applied to mask bitter tastes, then patient acceptability improves, but the complexity of the formulation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces taste-masking agents and flavoring compounds as intermediary substances that mediate between the bitter active pharmaceutical ingredient and the patient's taste buds. These intermediaries mask the unpleasant taste while allowing the drug to maintain its therapeutic efficacy, thereby improving patient acceptability without requiring complex delivery systems.
3Ease of operation
If liquid forms are used for pediatric patients, then swallowing is easier, but quality control measures are insufficient leading to inaccurate dosing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state parameter from liquid to solid chewable form, combining the swallowing ease of liquids with the dosing precision of solids. The chewable tablets are formulated to dissolve in the mouth, providing liquid-like ease of consumption while maintaining controlled dosing through precise manufacturing processes and standardized tablet weights.
4Reliability
If bitter or unpleasant tasting drugs are administered, then therapeutic efficacy can be achieved, but medication adherence deteriorates due to poor palatability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful bitter taste of the active pharmaceutical ingredient into a beneficial palatable chewable formulation. By incorporating taste-masking agents and flavoring compounds, the unpleasant taste is transformed into an acceptable or even pleasant tasting product, thereby improving medication adherence while maintaining therapeutic efficacy.
Data Source
AI summary
This invention relates to a chocolate or chocolate substitute composition or product comprising (a) at least compound to be delivered to a subject; (b) a chocolate or chocolate substitute matrix and at least (i) a masking agent or (ii) a firming agent, wherein the composition or product is substantially stable.