Segmented Chewable Vitamin Tablet for Pregnancy Compliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals, particularly women in physiologically stressful states like pregnancy and lactation, face challenges in meeting increased vitamin and mineral needs due to elevated metabolic demands and difficulties with traditional swallowable tablet forms, leading to potential nutritional deficiencies and compliance issues.
Innovation Solution
Development of swallowable, chewable, or dissolvable compositions containing vitamins A, C, D3, E, iron, magnesium, and zinc, tailored to meet specific nutritional requirements, with customizable forms to enhance administration ease and compliance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional swallowable tablet forms are used, then manufacturing and storage are simplified, but compliance and administration ease deteriorate due to swallowing difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the tablet into multiple functional layers: a core layer containing the nutritional composition and a coating layer providing chewable or dissolvable properties. This segmentation allows the tablet to maintain manufacturing simplicity while enabling alternative administration methods for those who cannot swallow whole tablets.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by modifying the physical and chemical properties of the tablet surface through coating materials that enable chewing or dissolving. This transforms the tablet from a purely swallowable form to one that can be alternatively administered, improving ease of operation without fundamentally changing the core composition.
2Ease of manufacture
If swallowable tablets are used, then manufacturing is easier, but compliance deteriorates due to swallowing problems
Solution Approach 1:
The segmented layered structure maintains ease of manufacture through conventional tablet pressing techniques while the specialized coating layer provides chewable or dissolvable characteristics. This segmentation enables compliance improvement without sacrificing manufacturing simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The coating layer acts as a disposable element that provides the necessary chewable/dissolvable function during administration, then serves no further purpose. This approach maintains manufacturing efficiency while ensuring compliance through alternative administration options.
3Quantity of substance
If multiple vitamin and mineral components are included, then nutritional completeness is improved, but composition complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple vitamin and mineral components into a single integrated core layer, combining their functions without requiring separate formulations. This merging approach maintains nutritional completeness while simplifying the overall composition structure to just two layers.
Solution Approach 2:
The core layer serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides the nutritional composition, maintains structural integrity, and works in conjunction with the coating layer to enable both swallowing and chewing/dissolving administration methods. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional separate components.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to compositions that may be swallowable, chewable or dissolvable, comprising various vitamins and minerals, and in a specific embodiment comprising vitamin A, beta carotene, B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin E, iron, magnesium and zinc, and methods for using these compositions for nutritional supplementation in subjects undergoing physiologically stressful events, such as, for example and without limitation, pregnancy, lactation or any disease state.