BMS to use Dow's foam granulation technology to develop drug

The US drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is using foam granulation technology (FGT) of Dow Wolff Cellulosics (DWC), a formulation specialist, to develop a second drug. Michael Altmann, global communications manager, DWC, informed that BMS uses FGT under a non-exclusive licensing agreement but could not identify the drug candidate being worked on for reasons of confidentiality.

Unlike traditional liquid binders, Dow uses an excipient foam to improve particle coverage. The key advantage is the greater surface area of the foam as compared to a liquid, which means it can be spread more rapidly and evenly over powder beds. The foams are made by passing air into a water-soluble excipient-like methocel, ethocel, polyox or walocel until a shaving cream like consistency is achieved.

Hirotsugu Furukawa, global marketing manager - pharmaceuticals, DWC, said that the FGT technique offers drugmakers significant cost advantages in terms of both the time taken to produce a tablet batch and the amount of excipients used.

He explained, "Without modifying existing equipment and using a low-cost foam generator, the manufacturing process uses less water than traditional wet granulation processing while rapidly coating particle surfaces and shortening processing time."