Pharmaceutical excipients are substances – other than the active pharmaceutical ingredient – that are used in the finished dosage form. Eastman manufactures a wide variety of functional excipients that are used to improve the efficacy of the active agent. Eastman™ excipients can be divided into three primary categories: enteric coating polymers; sustained-release drug delivery; and absorption enhancers and/or drug solubilizers.
Enteric Coating Polymer
Eastman's enteric polymers withstand prolonged contact with gastric fluids but dissolve readily in the mildly acidic to neutral-pH environment of the small intestine. Eastman manufactures two enteric polymers:
Sustained Release Drug Delivery
Eastman's categories of controlled-release membrane or matrix polymers are cellulose acetates (CAs) and cellulose acetate butyrates (CABs). Eastman is the exclusive manufacturer of these products for pharmaceutical applications, used in controlled-release applications involving membrane release or matrix release.
- Applicable as a water permeable membrane in osmotic systems
- A component in direct compression matrix for sustained release
- Barrier component in taste masking
Eastman™ Cellulose Esters
Absorption enhancers and/or drug solubilizers
Eastman has exited the Vitamin TPGS business. Please contact your sales representative for the availability of remaining stock. »more
Eastman™ Vitamin E TPGS* NF, or d-alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (USP: vitamin E polyethylene glycol succinate), is a drug solubilizer and absorption enhancer. For oral delivery, TPGS enhances drug efficacy in one or more of these ways:
- Improves drug solubility
- Enhances drug bioavailability
- Key component in self-emulsifying formulations
- Water soluble form of vitamin E
